Only half human
by Moterius
Summary: Dreams are a thing of beauty. They can help to adapt changes or allow one to experience wonderful things. Buts there is something that many people don't realize: that dreams can show real events, too. Follow Adam Payne and Kyoyhoa as they/he/she/it find/finds out what it means to live. Tf/tg story, but with a twist.
1. Prologue

**I have a writing plan; I just don't feel like following it.**

**At least this story won't go completely without a plan like the last time I attempted fanfiction.**

**Edit(ed): by Andrizzi**

* * *

My name is Adam Payne. Back then before the dreams started, I was a normal kid, growing up in the city.

Since it was so big, there were nearly no animals, and the few you could find were birds - they somehow managed to survive in this urban area.

I always wished I could explore the world, but it seemed like I wasn't meant to. My older brother did, though!

But... this story isn't about my brother. It's about me, and how my dreams changed my world.

Dreams... they're a thing of beauty.

They allow you to experience things you'd never experience yourself.

They can help you to overcome your worries.

But what if your dreams aren't dreams? What if your dreams show you something that is happening for real?

The dreams started when I was thirteen, and I enjoyed them, partly because I lived in a big city with nearly no animals around me, partly because I wondered what it would be like to be a pokémon.

What happened, you ask?

Well, one night in spring, I went to bed, and then, as soon as my eyes closed, I was elsewhere.


	2. Act 1 Chapter 1

**Reached (one of) my goals. I got one follower for this story.**

**You are free to ask questions by the way, just pm me; I'll answer them here, as long as they aren't spoiling anything.**

**BTW – does anyone knows how to add stories to a group? I'm asking because of the tf/tg-group for pokémon under community/Transformation-and-pokemorph-stories/8900/ …**

**Edit(ed): by Andrizzi**

* * *

**ACT 1: DREAMS**

* * *

It was a beautiful morning, and I was eating breakfast with my parents.

My brother just left the house for a job as ranger, and as such it still felt a bit empty without him, especially since he always talked, be it about the weather or his day.

"What are you thinking about?" my mom then suddenly asked, noticing me staring out of the window.

"I kind of wonder how it would be out there," I admitted, turning back to the table.

"Probably without all the games you like to play," my dad then retorted, grinning at me.

I admit, I liked to play the pokémon games. A lot. They were insanely popular in the cities, although real pokémon fights were probably pretty different.

"Still! It could be fun!" I tried to defend my standpoint, but my dad just laughed a bit.

"It could be, but what would you do if you were really out there? Just ask your brother when we visit, okay? I'm sure he'll tell you everything he experienced out there," mom said.

Well, of _that_ I'm sure.

After we finished breakfast, I grabbed my satchel and shoes before making my way over to the school. I didn't have many friends, but I knew much. Luckily, I wasn't bullied by anyone, but I sometimes really felt like I belonged elsewhere, since my days consisted only of learning, playing games and thinking.

When I was on the schoolyard after math I met with Lino, a boy that wanted to climb mountains. I never got why or how he wanted to do that, but I was friends with him.

"Hey. Still down about your brother going away? Anyone else would like that."

I chuckled without humor.

"He was more or less the last bit of excitement in my live. With him gone, I don't really know what to do anymore, and just learning is also something I don't want to do."

"Why don't you come with me to the climbing park?"

"Wait… there's a climbing park in the city? Where?" I asked, getting interested.

I wasn't that athletic, but I wasn't bad by any means. This could be fun.

"Right next to my home! Did you forget? Anyways, I'm glad you asked!" he exclaimed, doing a pose of some sorts. It kinda looked like he was trying to climb something.

"It's a three-stories building that got hollowed out! The back walls are transformed in different climbing walls, each one harder than the one before! The blue ones are easy, and the black ones are impossible! And it's really cheap, too!" he exclaimed, pulling out a card that displayed his face and a symbol that looked like it was made of bricks.

… it said that he had free access for his lifetime and that the owner of the indoor park had the same surname as Lino.

"Try it out! Just visit me, okay?"

I nodded. That sounded not half bad, and I liked the direction this was going.

"I have to ask my parents about it, but why not. Does your father own this?"

"How did you guess? Oh, right! You probably remembered me telling you! Soo… visit me tomorrow?"

I thought a moment about it.

"Eh, why not," I decided on a whim, knowing my parents wouldn't have planned anything anyways.

Once at home, I asked them, and they agreed to let me meet with Lino the next day.

After that, I did my homework, and, of course, played pokémon. But it was soon enough time to sleep, and I couldn't wait for once, as it meant that tomorrow would come faster.

I was excited, to say the least, I found an activity that could make fun.

…as for other sports? I was bad at most of them, and I also didn't like them. In competitive games you often had to get physical, which was something I didn't want.

So, I laid down, pulling my blanket over me.

* * *

When I woke up again, everything around me was dark and cramped, and I wasn't breathing. For a moment, I was panicking, but then I noticed that I actually wasn't feeling the need to breathe. However, I slowly started to feel like I was suffocating, so I pushed outwards.

Unluckily, whatever was in my way did only budge, not break. Frustrated, I threw my head forward, but before my skull touched whatever was in the way, I felt something on my head stop me.

Looking up, I couldn't see anything, but when I lifted my arm to feel what was there in the way, I found a horn.

It felt hard, but I could also sense the touch. It felt similar as if would something touch my skin.

I then realized that I wasn't feeling around the horn with a hand, but a paw instead. That simply wasn't possible, so I decided that this was a dream.

And if this was a dream, I should enjoy it as much as I could. I thought for a moment. My horn felt really hard, so I threw it forward, and to my joy whatever was in my way started breaking. A few more, ahem, 'attacks', and I started breaking away at whatever was in my way, allowing me to get a small glimpse of light through the hole.

Using my paws, I started expanding the hole, eventually breaking free of the confinement I was in. When I used my paw to pull myself forward, I could see a bit more of my surroundings, but still only a few blobs of light. Then, I realized I was coated in something sticky.

I wanted to pry it off, but I couldn't. After all I knew this far, it would be impossible to do so without a river nearby, but I didn't need to.

Because a moment after I poked my head out, I heard a crushing sound, and when I turned around, I could see a white and blue shape moving towards me. Before I could move, I felt it gently take a hold of me and pull me a bit to the side, before I felt something warm and wet running over my body.

In all the time, none of this appeared the least bit weird to me. But I soon enough realized what I was fantasizing about: Another life – as a pokémon.

I don't know any anmials with a blade on their head, so that was the only conclusion.

After a while, my eyesight got better as well, and when I looked up, I saw a big, white dog-like creature over me, observing me with its red eyes.

For a moment, I felt slight fear, but it was immediately crushed by both my mind and instincts, as I knew that this pokémon wouldn't harm me. It then pulled me closer before coiling around me, so that I was protected in its embrace. It felt nice, and I knew I was protected from the world. I was save.

I closed my eyes, and I returned to a deep sleep.


	3. Act 1 Chapter 2

**I apologize for my mistake with the formatting. It seems like word and fanficton simply can't work together right.**

**Edit(ed): by Andrizzi**

* * *

The next day, when I woke up, I felt incredibly relaxed for a while. Like I still was dreaming and lying in the loving embrace of a pokémon.

That illusion was shattered fast.

"ADAM! Get down for breakfast!"

My day was normal. Eat breakfast, talk a while with my parents, go to school, get pretty much ignored by everyone, return home.

However, there was one important difference to a 'normal' day: I had something to look forward to.

As soon as I was at home, I put down my satchel and said my parents I was going over to Lino. They replied with a mumbled 'okay', so I picked up my handy and walked out of the house, having my goal right in front of me.

Literally.

I crossed the street and walked around the block, coming to stand before the complex that Lino lived in. I only now saw the small sign on the adjacent building that said there was an indoor climbing park to be found.

In my defense, it was fairly small.

"Adam!" Lino called out, already standing in front of the climbing park. I saw he also had nothing with him. I simply assumed they would have equipment for climbing there.

"Hey Lino," I greeted, looking at him. He was looking excited, but I couldn't blame him.

"You ready?"

I simply nodded, and we entered the building. Nearby I could see a man looking similar to Lino, who looked up from his paperwork to greet us.

"Lino, you're back. I see you brought a friend."

"Yep! He didn't even know that we had an indoor climbing park!"

"Really? Give me a moment and I'll show you around," he said, picking up the pen again.

True to his word, after a few minutes spend talking with Lino he came out of the office, now having a rope over his arm for some reason.

He first explained their colour and number system for the difficulty of a course. The higher a number or the darker a colour of the number, the harder a course was.

I decided to start with the simpler ones, or with the number three.

The hardest three, the red, purple and black course you were only allowed to climb if you were sixteen years or older, so that was out of the question.

But I couldn't do it anyways, so I thought not too much about it.

Since the courses were all next to each other, I was able to simply go up one, and Lino the one next to me. That allowed us to continue chatting, and since the first few were easy, I was getting confident I could handle the more difficult courses.

…I was wrong, but at least there was a one-meter thick mattress to catch my fall. Explains why there is no safety gear needed, too.

After around an hour, I had enough, and Lino walked with me to my house.

"Did you like it?" he asked, looking back at the building.

"Yes," I admitted, smiling. "I wouldn't mind coming again soon. Uh, Lino?"

"Yes?"

"With you it was free for me, but what if you aren't there?"

"Silly! I already told you that the cards were really cheap, didn't I? Just ask your parents, I'm sure they'll be glad to buy you a card. And remember, that's only if I can't talk my dad in giving you one for free!"

I nodded.

"I'll ask them tomorrow, then you can tell me if your dad agrees, okay?"

He nodded.

"See you tomorrow, then! Be save!"

After waving him goodbye, I turned around and got back to our house. It was already a bit late, so it wouldn't be long until there was time to sleep.

As I thought about sleeping, I remembered the warmth I felt from the closeness of the pokémon. I knew it wasn't real, but even now, hours later, I felt like there was a part of me, lying in a warm and protective embrace.

When I opened my eyes again, I knew I was back in the dream. I was looking around, and sure enough the white furred pokémon was lying next to me, blinking the sleep out of her eyes.

{Ah, you are awake, little one,} she said, looking me in the curious eyes.

{Come here! You must be hungry.}

I indeed was, but my sleepy brain couldn't connect the dots fast enough before I was pulled to her belly. For a moment I wondered how a pokémon could lay eggs _and_ nurse their offspring, but then I remembered that there actually was an animal analogy: the platypus.

Though, knowing that wasn't helping. Neither was the enormous hunger I felt after she said I would be hungry. But I also felt incredibly compelled to follow the suggestion of simply opening my mouth, especially after I smelled something really sweet.

So – I did.

After I got my drink, I looked around, still being hungry.

{I don't have any more cheri berries, so you'll have to wait.}

I instantly pouted. It was childish, not like I can be judged.

Luckily, she stayed true to her word, and soon enough returned with the red berries in her mouth, careful not to poke a hole in them with her teeth.

* * *

Lino managed to get a one-year membership card for me from his dad, aside from that, nothing really changed.

Over the next few days I found that I liked the cheri berry the most, as it was both really tasty and gave me enough energy to start wandering around. I also found that the sitrus berry wasn't that tasty, but it also energized me. My poke-mom also insisted that they were really good for me, so I ate them.

There was also a third berry that grew around here. It was the bluk berry. It tasted dry and sour, but it was clearly NOT dry - I drank its juice since my teeth were a tad too small to chew right now.

My surroundings told me we were in a dense forest, which also meant there wouldn't be much dangers to look out for. Save the pokémon living in the woods, of course.

{I have decided on a name for you, my little daughter.}

That statement caused my thoughts to crash to a screeching halt. Why in the world would I dream of being female?

I couldn't speak right now, so I tilted my head instead.

{You will be known as Kyoyhoa.}

I nodded; I liked that name.

{By the way, I met with an old friend a few days ago, she has also a daughter only a few weeks older than you. I think it's a good idea for you to meet, you need friends.}

Turning away, she then muttered something I couldn't hear, but I had a pretty good guess what it was as her ears dropped in the moment she said so.

When I woke up again, I was amazed that I had the same dream again and again over the last week. I kind of wished each evening more and more to return to my live as a pokémon.

"Hey, you look more lively than usual, did something happen?" dad asked then, seeing my happy mood in the morning.

"Yep! I dreamed I was a pokémon!" I responded, beaming.

He chuckled.

"You know, dreams often show us what we really want deep down. Maybe you want to follow your brother's footsteps?"

"DAD!"

He chuckled. That happened every time when I told him about my dreams, be it the ones at night or daydreams.

"Anyways, I wanted to tell you something. I phoned your brother yesterday, and we will visit him in a few months. I planned this for your school's summer break."

I nodded. That sounded good, and I really wanted to get out of the city for more than just a day when we made a trip to a park here or there.

"Will you go to Lino today?"

"Yes! I'm good enough to try the orange courses now, maybe I'll get as good as him someday!"

After a bit more chit-chat, I left the house for school, and I saw Lino soon enough. He was holding a chart with rock types on it, oddly enough.

"Lino! What are you doing with that?"

"Oh, hey Adam. I just discovered that my dad worked once as geologist, and he gave me this."

"What is that?"

"A chart with stone types, listed by density. Additionally, there's listed how easy they shatter."

"…why do you have it with you?"

"I find it interesting; it could help me later when I become a climber!"

I nodded. He wasn't wrong, after all.

"Well, I'll be off. See you later?"

"You bet! You wanted to try the orange course, right?"

I nodded before walking away. Class started soon.

{Now that you can move for more than just a few minutes, I think it's okay for you to accompany me. Do you want to?}

I nodded, excited. That would be my first trip in the woods around us, so I hopped on my pokémom's back.

We left the cave and walked for a few minutes through the woods. I sniffed around and I could get a sense of direction. That was amazing, I would never be able to orient myself as human through my nose!

After a few more minutes, we got close to a river, and I could see a tent (inclusive trainer) in a clearing next to the river.

The absol under me immediately tensed, and snuck forwards before pointing at the human.

{That is something I'd have hoped to explain to you later. What you see there is a human, and they come in different shades and personalities, like pokémon. That one is out to catch pokémon. You can tell by the orbs he has around his waist.}

An ultraball, a nestball and a netball. I could only agree with my pokémom.

{Those who have only red and white or purely white ones with them are usually more friendly, but you still have to be careful. Promise me not to get to them unless absolutely necessary, ok?}

I nodded, and the absol snuck away with me, leaving the clearing behind.

On our way through the forest we also picked up a few berries we ate on the spot. Or rather I sucked them dry, then my pokémom ate them.

It was interesting to stand on the other side of a pokéball, to say the least.

For a few days, we continued walking through the woods, helping me to remember a few landmarks. The absol told me it was to ensure I'd find my way home would I get lost.

After a few times however, when we retuned to the cave, I could smell a scent I knew wasn't from us. However, the absol – which was still carrying me – simply walked in our cave, turning to the intruders.

{Kida.}

An old looking folipurba walked out of the shadows, a small eevee on her back.

{Sadowa. I take it that's your child? How did you name her?}

{Kyoyhoa. Hey, lil' Fujita is here as well!}

The eevee shyly tried to hide behind her mother's head, but her eyes grew wide when she spotted me. She jumped down and walked over to me, looking at me.

After sniffing at me for a moment, she eventually started cleaning my fur with her paws and tounge. It wasn't unpleasant, since my pokémom also did that for me, but it was completely unexpected.

After she was done, I felt like I should return the favour and tried to do the same for her. Needless to say, we were both very bad at it, but it made fun.

But it was also exhausting, and after I was done, I laid down next to her, already half asleep.


	4. Act 1 Chapter 3

**Edit(ed): by Andrizzi**

* * *

Over the next few weeks, I had to do one of the most tedious tasks ever: re-learning how to speak.

Fujita was learning way faster than I was, but that was to be expected. She was way older than me, and she also had the advantage of not having to learn to speak with an unfamiliar mouth.

Additionally, while I could _understand_ the pokéspeech, I was also aware that it was different than English was. It wasn't too bad, but it was a bit difficult.

Fortunately, I had next to nothing to learn in school, save a bit biology for an exam my (human) teacher wanted to take before we got in spring break.

{Kyo?}

I looked up, seeing the eevee walking up to me.

{…hey. Fuji,} I said, still struggling with the words.

For some bizarre reason, names were easier to speak than any other words.

Anyways, she had one of the dry tasting bluk berries on their back. They were similar to wine, and as such perfect for young pokémon like us.

I nodded to her, showing my appreciation for bringing me the berry. I was already fairly strong and could move fast in my body, at least for my age, but I couldn't say 'thanks' properly.

After we ate the berry, Fujita pointed out of the small cave.

{Look?}

{..kay,} I said, walking with her out of the cave.

A few minutes later, we stood in front of a cheri tree, and she was trying to get one of the berries that was higher up, when she suddenly jumped back.

In alarm, I looked around, and unluckily it looked like her fear wasn't without reason. Because as I took in our surroundings, the only thing I heard was a buzzing.

A second later, a beedrill burst through a bush, swiping at us. I managed to evade the attack, but Fujita got hit at her ear.

Her posture showed incredible fear, but she didn't covered, as we both knew that would mean certain death.

The adrenaline coursing through my veins caused me to suddenly find an energy pool in my body, and I threw that energy forward. For a brief moment, the air in front of me shimmered pink-purpleish, and the beedrill lifted two of its drills to protect itself.

_But nothing happened._

In desperation, I threw this energy again and again, but it seemed to have no effect except the short glow. The beedrill did what would equal to a grin, then shot forward, aiming straight for my chest.

I couldn't move fast enough, but luckily, I didn't need to – Fujita had used quick attack to get me to the side before the beedrill hit us.

I realized she knew a few attacks, but they were useless as it would be suicide to get in close combat with the beedrill. Unluckily, while she saved me for the moment, we now were cornered by the tree and bushes, and the beedrill rushed forward, this time without giving us a path to escape.

Closing my eyes, I waited for the inevitable, but it never came. Instead, I heard a loud sound, and the closest I could describe it as was a shattering sound.

Opening my eyes, I saw the insect was pushed back by something, but I ignored that. I pointed to the side, and Fuji nodded. We ran as fast as we could, and the beedrill turned to fly after us.

Before it could pick up any speed however, it got slammed sideways by a pink burst of energy, coming seemingly out of nowhere.

Using the chance, we ran back to the cave, only resting there from our adventure. I made a promise to myself to learn to fight properly, as my reluctancy to do so nearly cost me my (dream-) live.

Only later I would learn that I actually use a move: future sight. That move is a _delayed_, but strong move that can hit your opponent completely unaware. It actually did so as well in this case.

That was the last major event that happened to me for the next few weeks. I grew up really fast, and after just two months, I was already as tall than my pokémom.

AN: There is actually a hidden variable for pokémon in the games that's named 'size'. It has no influence on the abilities/stats of your pokémon, the only thing it changes is how big they are shown in battle. Best example: the …are they called guardian pokémon?... from the Alola region with maximum size.

Sadowa also explained to me that most pokémon left their parents after just a few months, to ensure they would have a bigger chance of survival. I trained to defend myself, but I also learned more about berries, as my pokémom didn't wanted to hunt.

That was also one of the reasons she was friends with Fujita's mom. She also didn't liked hunting, as she could very easy imagine how some other pokémon could do the same to her.

Over the last few days, I was growing more and more restless and wanted to travel. I didn't know why, but it felt like it was the right thing to do.

{Kyo!}

I stopped staring at the stick in front of me and turned to Fujita. For some reason, while I was feeling more mature in this body, she stayed both a bit small and a bit childish.

I am not sure why, but I have a guess it's because of me.

{I'm leaving too! Can I come with you?} she asked, giving me the strongest puppy eyes look she could manage.

{You know that doesn't works on me,} I deadpanned, having used that trick myself way too often over the first month.

{Fine! But I can still come with you?}

I chuckled.

{Of course. But in that case, you'll listen to what I have to say, understood?}

She nodded enthusiastically.

My tone now grew serious.

{That means, if I say run, you run. If I say hide, you hide. If I tell you to leave me, _you will leave me_,} I said, looking her dead in the eyes.

Her ears folded back, but she nodded.

{Okay…}

I then softened my expression.

{Hey, I don't want to intimidate you or anything. It's just that I'll be responsible for you, you know? You can't discuss this with me when we're in a fight, so we have to talk about it before we leave,} I explained, lifting her head with my paw.

{Kinda like my mom. Understood!}

I looked to the setting sun.

{We'll leave in two days time. Is that enough time for you?}

{Yes. Eat as much cheri berries as I can before we start, right?}

I nodded. Since the cheri berry was such useful as energy provider, I wanted to eat only them before we started. We both had no healing wounds, so we needed the energy only to travel.

Looking to the west I wondered what would expect us there. This 'dream' was incredibly real, and I found out long ago I could only change it as if I was really there. But that was impossible, right?


	5. Act 1 Chapter 4

**Edit(ed): by Andrizzi**

* * *

"I heard you never fight back."

Wrong.

Where stood he? Around ten meters behind me.

"Wanted to test that," the yet unknown kid said, walking closer.

For some bizarre reason, I could use the instincts and knowledge of the time I was dreaming of being an absol. My senses were way worse than as an absol, but that didn't mean I was getting no information from them.

He now stood close enough to hit me without taking another step. I tensed, ready to move at a moment's notice.

Without warning, he then threw his arm forward, but I heard it. It was nearly impossible to hear with all the other sounds in the background, but I could hear a very faint sound, nonetheless. In the moment I heard it, I jumped right, leaving the chair I was sitting on in the cafeteria and causing his attack to run into nothing.

I now stood in front of a pillar. Usually, that would mean I could get cornered easier, but I only heard him. He was probably alone.

Turning around, he immediately shot forward, now no longer calm but frustrated and a bit angry.

My eyes were still closed, and I only realized now how powerful of a tool your hearing really can be. With how much he moved, I could tell only with slight movement of my head exactly where he was.

Opening my eyes, I looked at him.

"You really want to do this?"

No response, but he moved slower than before. Is he cautious?

Soon enough, he attacked again. I ducked in the last moment, then grabbed his arm and shirt, before throwing him backwards. He landed on the floor with a crushing sound, but I could tell nothing was really broken. Afterwards, he stayed down.

However, the arm I used to give him the needed momentum now also hurt a bit. My body wasn't exhausted fast, thanks to all the climbing I did with Lino, but not very strong.

"Adam! How did you _do_ that?"

"Insane answer or real one?"

Lino thought for only a moment.

"Both!"

I chuckled.

"I could see him without my eyes, and I dreamt of training to fight."

"And the real answer?"

"Was the second part. Hey – do you want to come with us to a trip in the woods? My brother is working as a ranger, and I'm sure he'd love to show you around.

"Why not, but when would that be?"

"First weekend in summer break."

"That's in one and a half weeks!"

"More than enough time to ask your dad, right?"

"Adam? Remember, we'll go to your brother this weekend."

I thought a moment about it, then remembered what I wanted to ask.

"Can I bring Lino?"

"Why? On a family trip for your brother?"

"We're only visiting him! We don't do anything else! I'm sure Lino would appreciate being elsewhere than stuck in the city forever, and Vexx would like to talk about his job with someone new, too!"

It took way longer than just those few sentences, but eventually got my mom to say that Lino could come with us, would he want and get permission to do so, which I already knew he had.

As soon as I met with him at his father's indoor climbing park, I told him. Why not at school? It was already summer break, so…

"What do we need?"

I thought a moment about it.

"Bring clothes for two days, but aside from that I can't really think of anything we'd need."

He thought a moment, then jumped up.

"I know exactly what we're missing!"

"What?"

"Just wait! It'll be a surprise!" he said, running back to his flat.

Shrugging my shoulders, I walked back home. It would probably take him a few hours at least to get what he wants – since he always gets those 'surprises' from the city – and climbing without him wasn't that much fun.

We were travelling at night, since I was a bit stronger under the moon – and always started sleeping as soon as I saw the sun. No idea why, but Fujita had no problem with that.

{How big do you want to get?} she asked one day, referring to the fact that I was almost three times as high as her.

{I'm not that hungry anymore, so… not much more, I think.}

Over the first week I was really hungry and ate nearly every berry we came across, and in that time, I grew really big. I just hoped that wouldn't make me weaker since I grew that fast.

If I had to guess, my back was about 1.5 meters high.

Over the time we travelled this night however, I picked up some unfamiliar scents.

{I think we're near humans,} I said, looking around. {Do you smell what I mean?}

My companion nodded.

{Faint, but's there. Wait! That scent is mixed with pokémon scents, too!}

Maybe a ranger? I remembered thinking much about my brother, so could this have found its way into my dreams?

{I think I know what you mean. I want to check, you?}

She nodded.

{After you got that big, nobody dared attack us! You look strong; I think the humans wouldn't try anything.}

{I'm not sure if I'm actually that strong, so we should still be careful.}

{Ok.}

Walking closer, I could eventually see a wooden fence, surrounding a big, human-made clearing and a wooden hut next to the fence.

On the gate I could see a mightyena, watching over the area.

{Hey! You two! Come here!}

I walked over to her, Fujita trying to make herself intimidating. It got only a chuckle from the mightyena.

{Name's Ruby. What are yours? Why are you here?}

{I'm Fujita! We wanted to check what smelled so weird!}

{She's right,} I said, bowing my head slightly. {I'm Kyoyhoa, and we were travelling east before we found this place. What is this?}

{My human calls it a 'save area', quote unquote. He's helping and studying the pokémon out here, and fighting is strictly forbidden in here. As long you're in perfect health though you have to get your own food.}

I nodded, that sounded reasonable.

{Well, I trust you to keep to the rules. No fights, don't destroy anything.}

We both agreed, and Ruby opened the gate.

{One more thing: If you stay, my human will probably try to examine and/or measure you. I don't think he has seen an absol before.}

I nodded, then stepped through the gate. Looking around, I spotted an ice blue pokémon with something that looked similar to fins, as well as a few eevees, some insect pokémon and a ralts.

{Oh! Kyo, can I go?} Fujita asked, pointing at the eevees.

I nodded.

{Sure. I'll look a bit around and then try to talk with the blue one over there; I never saw a pokémon like him.}

Having finished eating his (very early) breakfast, the pokémon-ranger walked out of the wooden hut before walking over to the mightyena he had partnered up with a few weeks after he got here.

"Any problems with the pokémon?" he asked, looking over the farm.

Ruby looked at him and shook her head.

However, she looked behind him, looking surprised for a moment before she got in a battle stance. Surprised why she would, he turned around, only to come _face to face _with an absol. He was a head shorter than an average human, but still – absol was a _canine!_ It shouldn't be possible for one to get this big!

The look in the absol's eyes also told him that she wanted something from him, but he couldn't tell what. Before he or she could move though, his mightyena barked something, getting a short response from the absol that was staring at him, not diverting her glance.

However, there was no malice in her eyes, just curiosity. The pokémon took a long sniff of his scent, then walked around him once, seemingly searching for something.

Afterwards, she simply walked away, over to the group of eevees who seemed scared for a second, but then got quiet again after one of the eevees ran over to the absol and tried hugging it.

He looked to Ruby.

"_Any_ idea what that was about?"

She shook her head.

He mentally shrugged. He wanted to believe he wasn't surprised or scared by the absol, but both would be lying to himself.

Why the hell is that ranger _my brother?!_

I walked up to him, and Ruby looked like she wanted to stop me.

{Hey!}

{I won't hurt him,} I said, not tearing my glance away from him.

Sniffing at him, I found that he kind of smelled like his room did, just stronger. I walked around him and checked the scar on his neck. It was there.

Shrugging, because I didn't think it would be important, I turned away and walked over to the eevees.

{Aah!} one of them called/half-screamed upon seeing me coming, but before they all could run away, Fujita ran up to me, hugging my front right leg.

{Kyo! Come, play with us.}

I looked over them for a moment.

{Then, I'll be the sleeping monster,} I said, laying down on my side.

{Aww! Come on!}

{Fujita, you know I'm stronger and only awake at night, and it's already morning. And after walking for the night I'm really tired as well. I'll play with you next night, okay?}

{Okay!} she called, running back to the other eevees.

For her it was easy to adapt a new sleep circle, but it seemed like I was always out as a light as soon as the sun was raising.

Which it should be right about… now. Tomorrow I'll see my brother for real, at least.


	6. Act 2 Chapter A

**ACT 2: AWAKE**

* * *

**Edit(ed) by: Andrizzi**

* * *

"All packed up, Lino?"

"Yep! I even got my copy of pokémon so we can play against each other on the trip!"

Well, I had to admit I had the same idea. I did pick mine as well so I could skip the time on the trip, would it get boring. Just talking gets boring after a while.

"You two, come on! It's time!"

"Yes dad," I said, purposefully ignoring him.

After a short shouting match and around an hour later, we started driving. When I fought Lino, to my amazement I saw the blue pokémon in the game I thought was a result of my fantasy.

"Lino? What's that for a pokémon?"

"You mean my amaura?"

"…is that the blue one?"

"Yes. He's a rock/ice type, I got him from an event. Why?"

"I think I have seen it before."

"Where? It's never been on the news nor has it been in the games for very long. As far as I know, it is only in the game for around two weeks."

My blood ran cold upon hearing that. There was a good chance of dreaming things that had a relation to your life, but dreaming of something that I _couldn't_ have seen before and was real?

"Mom? Can you please give me your –"

I was going to say 'phone', but in that moment my brother called dad.

"Ah, good that you call us!" he said, putting his phone to speaker mode.

"Why?"

"Well, we're on our way to you. Expect us within the next two hours."

"Ah, your visit is also why I called. You may know about the 'save zone' that comes with our job and that I have to oversee?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, over the past week came a few new pokémon to the farm. Remember the news about amaura?"

"No, why?"

"Not important, it's just a recently discovered fossil-pokémon, dual-type ice/rock. Point is, it came to the farm, and upon realizing it wasn't attacked by the pokémon there probably decided to stay, since it is weak against the usual types you find in a forest. And then just yesterday two more pokémon arrived."

An absol and an eevee…

"An eeveee and the disaster pokémon absol."

Lino noticed my pale look.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah…" I weakly replied. "I just have a bad feeling."

When we arrived at the farm, our brother already stood there, the mightyena next to him. Looking around, worried, I could indeed see the absol – ME – lying there in the grass, sleeping.

I could even see the circle of footprints on the grass 'I' left there less than twelve hours ago.

"ADAM!"

I was shocked out of my thoughts and looked around, noticing dad right next to me.

"Did you heard what Vexx said?"

"Uhh… no?"

"Well, I just said you have to be careful around the absol. Aside from Ruby, I don't know any canine-pokémon that won't attack you, and she is an exception from that rule. Additionally, even _if_ she would only want to play with you, have you seen how big she is? She could easily injury you, even if she would only want to play."

"I'll be careful."

{You should be.} the mightyena then commented, obviously not believing I'd listen to my brother.

"As if you'd know better," I snarked back, my frazzled nerves causing me to overlook the fact it was a pokémon that just spoke to me.

{As a matter of fact, I do,} she deadpanned.

"Then what should I do in your opinion?"

{_NOT_ go over to that absol as I can see you clearly planning.}

"Bah, _fine_," I shot back, turning around to follow my brother. Only to see that my entire family (and Lino) was staring at me with a look of incomprehension on their faces.

My brother was the first to break the silence.

"You can understand Ruby?"

"Appara…nt…l…y" I responded, only now realizing what just happened.

I turned back and blinked at the mightyena.

{Woof fucking woof,} she responded, clearly annoyed by me.

Then, I realized something.

When each of those perspectives of mine were there when I was awake… I remembered that we were never awoken by anything during the day. Heck, I don't even remember a single time as Kyoyhoa I was awake during the day! Additionally, this was the first time I was actually listening to a pokémon while being in my human form.

"Anyways, such a talent may be uncommon, but this is not the fist time something like that happened. I'm sure that if you can understand the pokémon here, you will enjoy your stay. They are all really friendly!" my brother said, clearly excited about the prospect of us playing with the pokémon here.

Though, that brought me an idea. I never purposefully tried to stay up late in either form, I wanted to go back to the other world in my 'dreams' each time this happened.

In consequence, there should be the possibility to use both bodies at the same time and _sleep_ with both bodies at the same time, essentially allowing me 'normal' sleep again.

So, I decided to stay up as late as I could tonight, trying to 'wake up'. It was a gamble, but one I couldn't lose.

"ADAM!"

"Huh? What?"

"You are really scatter-brained today. Is something on your mind?"

{Yes. The absol.}

"Nobody asked you, and nobody _understands_ you, so why bother?" I hissed back so only Ruby could hear me.

{Maybe you'll listen to reason if I repeat myself often enough.}

"Not really, I'm just a bit worried…" over the world "…can't really say why," I then responded, looking back to my brother.

I then got an incredible stupid idea but decided not to speak it out loud.

"Oh. Well, the last thing I wanted to show you is where you'll be sleeping. Since there are usually more rangers than just one assigned to an area, there are enough beds for you. I have two bedrooms, one with a single and one with a double bed. You'll take the small one," he explained, pointing at the doorways.

I didn't even notice that we were inside the cabin.

"Well, I'll guess were all really exhausted. Let's eat dinner and head to bed, we'll look around tomorrow. Sounds good?"

We all nodded.

Unluckily, as soon as my head hit the pillow, I once again was out like a light.

* * *

While I was playing with Fujita, she told me over the new arrivals I 'didn't knew' about.

{They came here when you were sleeping! Try to stay awake for once, okay? I want to see them!}

I chuckled.

{You know I can hardly do that, but maybe there's an option.}

I then raised my voice and addressed the nearby pokémon after I looked to make sure I wouldn't disturb any sleeping pokémon.

{Excuse me! Does any of you know sleep powder?}

For a moment, nothing happened, then one oddish came forth.

{I do, why do… you… ask,} she said, looking up and up upon noticing me.

I chuckled; I was used to that reaction to my body size by now.

{Ah, nothing really important. It's just that I want to be awake during the next day. Best idea would to send me sleeping during the night before; Fujita can wake me up.}

{Your friends with her?} the oddish asked, clearly not believing her ears. If she had some that was; I couldn't clearly tell.

I nodded.

{Actually, I'm doing this for her,} I then added, knowing that would probably win her over.

She shrugged.

{Not like that attack is especially hard for me,} she said before releasing from somewhere between the leaves on her head a cloud of light-brown dust.

Usually, you'd do your best to evade that stuff (and I could probably do that by raising my head), but this wasn't a battle, so I stuck my snout in it and took a long sniff.

Then nothing happened.

{Why isn't it working?} the oddish asked, concerned.

{Give it a second, my body's pretty… pretty big,} I said, stifling a yawn and lying down again. Within a minute or two, I was asleep again.

* * *

{Crelia?}

{I'm seeing it. How could that happen?}

{I don't know. But it isn't good. Should we check?}

{…no. That is something this soul has to finish on her own. After all, we would only be able to remove the dreams, and this one has not had any dreams for far too long. Do you think we should keep an eye on it?}

{One time? No. If it happens again after it subsides, yes.}

"Who are you?"

{Ah! How rude of us not to introduce ourselves! I'm Crelia, guardian of the dreams.}

"Really?"

* * *

I remember nothing of the following time until the moment I woke up again as Adam.

"Get up, lazy."

"If you call me by my name."

{GET UP!}

"Gah!" I screamed. The mightyena clearly managed to shock me awake, causing me to fall down on the floor.

A few minutes later, I was dressed, and I was sitting on the breakfast table with my family.

Remembering my dream – and then realizing I _had_ a dream – I turned to Vexx.

"Hey, Vexx? Did you ever hear of a pokémon that watches over dreams?" I asked, trying to recall how the 'dream guardian' looked.

"Well, there is a legend of a pokémon with the power to do so, but I don't know it personally, just that it's about two pokémon called Cresselia and Darkrai."

I nodded. As far I could see, I just heard the names one day and this night, when it was the first time in nearly forever that I actually _dreamt_ and not just thought I did, it surfaced from my memories.

I'd be worried if the guardian in my dreams would have told me her correct name, but since it didn't, I was sure it was just a dream.

Then, I suddenly got _incredibly_ tired, similar to my experience with the sleep powder as Kyoyhoa.

Looking out of the window, I could see that Fujita was trying to wake the other 'me' up.

And, eventually I could see myself stir.

For a moment I wondered what it would mean would I just have destroyed that connection, but then I realized that I was cast in a state I remembered from when I was younger, as if I was half-asleep and could sense both the real world and dream world.

So, I (sat / stood up) and (ate my breakfast / stood up).

And while it was already disorienting of seeing my body lying there in the grass yesterday evening, that was _nothing_ against moving around in it and seeing it to do so. The asymmetry of the absol family didn't helped, meaning I wasn't seeing what I was used to as Kyoyhoa from reflective surfaces.

Then an odd thought hit me. I was close to myself, wasn't I?

So – how'd mega evolution work for me?

Deciding to put that thought away for later when I had the mega stones necessary for that, I instead turned my attention back outside, since our breakfast talk had no interesting content whatsoever.

* * *

{It worked!}

Chuckling, the absol stood up and looked around for a moment. Eventually, her eyes fell for a second on the humans in the wooden construction, but then turned back to the eevee.

{Do you think we'll be able to play with them?} it asked.

In turn, the absol nodded her head before responding.

{I'm sure of it. Until then, I want to talk to the amaura over there. Want to come?}

{Sure!}

Ruby listened closely to what they said, as both the human that could understand her and the absol had a weird – not bad, just weird – vribe about them.

Then she realized what was different: NEITHER of them did talk much about pokémon, but the absol admitted yesterday that she DID NOT KNEW what pokémon the amaura was. So how did she know NOW?

Standing up, the mightyena followed the two pokémon, who in turn were walking over to the amaura and starting a conversation. Lying down on the grass, she adjusted her ears and started listening, knowing she shouldn't do this on just a hunch but doing so regardless.

* * *

I introduced me and Fujita to the amaura, then we started talking.

{So, you were frozen in ice?} I asked him, wondering what he already saw in this modern world.

{It's kind of ironic that way, but yes. That is also the reason I'm currently the only amaura on this planet.}

{'Currently?'}

{That human over there picked up some scales, talking about copying my body or something.}

{Are those idiots trying to create another mewtwo?}

{Mew- who?}

{Right, you weren't there.}

Over the next half an hour, I recited the tale of team rocket trying to clone the ancient pokémon known as 'Mew'. I also told him that they weren't particularly bright and was _really_ glad Fujita got bored and played with other pokémon. She knew me my whole 'live', and there was no way in hell I could know what I was telling Hoseki.

{Basically, if you see two people in the same clothes, run?}

{Pfft… hahaha!}

I couldn't stop myself from laughing. After only listening to me for half an hour or so, he managed to nearly perfect sum up the (current) pokémon world.

* * *

"Well, who wants to see some pokémon?"

I got startled and looked around for a second, realizing we were still at the breakfast table. I, Lino and both my parents raised their hands.

"Well you already saw some of them. Which ones do you two want to see?" he asked first, looking at me and Lino.

"I want to see the eevees!" Lino called, somehow managing not to run past my brother. Probably 'cause the doorway was too small.

"I want to see the absol."

{Told you,} Ruby then said, looking oddly at me.

"Will you stop?!" I hissed back at her.

"I have seen a flower-like pokémon, I want to see if I can talk with her."

Vexx' eyes lit up.

"Oh, you mean the lileep! You have to be careful around her, she's really shy. What about you, dad?"

"To be honest, I'd just like to observe them for a while. None of them have found my eye, so to speak."

"Oh, okay. Well then, follow me – I'll show you the wonders of the pokémon world!"

While we were following my brother, I couldn't help but think about what I'd do when I was out there with the pokémon. I was a bit nervous, fearing that some of them might catch on through observing us. After all, many pokémon are way more perceptive than humans; they have to be.

* * *

FYI, the name 'Hoseki' is just what google translate throws up when you put in English - Japanese and tell it to translate 'gem'. Found it fitting for the character, y'know?


	7. Act 2 Chapter B

**Edit(ed) by Andrizzi**

* * *

When 'they' came out, I walked back over to Fujita, looking at the eevee making herself either as fluffy or cute as possible. I'm not sure what her goal was.

{What are you trying?}

{If I'm bigger they'll notice me first!}

{In that case…} I said trailing off. When she looked up at me, it was already too late; I picked her up, placing her on my back.

{Thank you Kyo! Wow, everything looks so small from up here!}

I grinned, then walked over to the humans.

{It's you,} the mightyena greeted me, sounding like she wasn't exited at all seeing me.

{Is there any time you are not grumpy?} I asked, looking at the humans before my eyes.

{When I'm sleeping.}

Should've seen that coming.

{What do they even want?} I asked, pointing at the humans.

{They want to get to know you better. The young boy here wants to play with an eevee} – in that moment everyone present could hear a {Squee!} from the small pokémon on my back – {the other one wants to play with you.}

I took a short look at Lino. Since I wasn't feeling a single bit worried, I carefully sat down, allowing Fujita to go down from my back. She immediately ran over to Lino.

The, I turned to 'Adam', walking over to him.

{You shouldn't say anything to _him_,} Ruby said low enough that I couldn't hear anything in my human form. To show her I heard what she said, I tilted my head very slightly.

{He can understand you,} she explained, pointing to 'Adam'.

{Well, then…} I muttered back, hoping she would hear me.

{Ruby here said that you're here to play with us.}

I walked so close that 'we' were only around twenty centimetres apart.

{Hope you're up for the task,} I said grinning before shooting my head forwards, still looking after my horn not to accidentally hit someone, kissing 'Adam' on the lips.

* * *

After 'she' got back from me, I could hear both my brother and dad telling me via their voices that they weren't comprehending what had just happened.

"What the -?!" my dad exclaimed, clearly shocked by both the 'human' and the 'forward' actions of the absol.

"Wow," my brother just said, a half-dreamy look on his face. I would have shot him a disapproving glare, but I wasn't really in a position to do so, and poképhilia wasn't banned anyways.

…would that count as masturbation?

{Seriously? You did this for a bad joke?} Ruby asked, still having an annoyed tone in her voice.

{Who said I'm not interested for real?} 'Kyoyhoa' shot back, grinning at Ruby.

{But… he…}

{Naah, that was just to mess with you three. And you're coming with me,} 'Kyoyhoa' said, using her (very weak) telekinesis to pull me with her.

After a moment, I simply followed 'her', and we walked back to Hoseki, who in turn looked up seeing us approach.

By now I had a 'feeling' where my bodies were in comparison to each other, essentially making it unnecessary to look out for 'myself'. As such, I had an idea.

Sparring.

* * *

Looking at the human and absol, Ruby couldn't help but wonder what they were up to. She followed them again, hoping to get more information on both of them.

She was also a bit worried that Kyoyhoa had only said 'you three'. Whom did she exclude?

Then she saw getting those two in a battle position. Seemed like she missed something.

Coming closer, she could soon enough make out the amaura's voice, explaining something.

{…and no moves, crippling blows or any attacks aimed at the tail, tailbone, crotch or spine area. For Adam, same rules, but no attacks at the horn or pulling of the fur to inflict pain. Winning by the others submission or pinning them to the ground for ten seconds.}

Are those idiot's _sparring?!_

For a moment, both didn't move. Only their eyes danced about each other.

* * *

Remembering how I managed to answer my father's questions this morning, I tried to do something similar again, to make sure our dance wouldn't be choreographed. I felt a strong connection, but I also felt that there was a very slim border between me being 'human' or 'pokémon'. I used that small division, enhancing it further.

When I looked up, I didn't saw me looking back, but I knew myself better than anyone else. This would be interesting, especially since I wasn't allowed to use moves.

* * *

Then, the human shot forward, seemingly surprising the absol.

'They totally are,' Ruby though, sitting down, interested.

Of course, in a direct fight, no human could beat a pokémon. But Hoseki specifically stated that moves and disabling blows were forbidden, so the human might actually stand a chance.

The absol first ducked under the attack, then jumped forwards, causing the human to stop and turn around. Unlike she expected, the absol stopped for half a second, causing the swinging down arm of the human to hit nothing but air, giving her the opening to tackle the human to the ground.

Silently, she could see Hoseki start counting, but he could have spared himself doing that, as the human kicked away the back legs of Kyoyhoa before pushing her to the side.

Before she could react, he had rolled out under her and stood up before immediately jumping at her, trying to pin down her in turn.

Seemingly surprised at that, the absol then grinned, before standing up only on her front legs. Then, she did a backflip, but the human somehow managed to see that coming and jumped aside in time.

Over the next minute or so, both tried to pin down the other, but then Kyoyhoa changed tactics. When she shot forward again, she feinted going left, while she in reality did jump right after she did.

However, the human hadn't seen this coming, giving the absol the chance it needed to pin down the human long enough to 'win' their 'fight'.

From the perspective of a pokémon, this was neither a good nor bad performance. However, when Ruby thought about the fact it was a human in front of her that managed to fight a pokémon to a standstill – in a sparring match without power, but still! – she couldn't help but shiver.

* * *

It was an interesting experience to fight myself, to say the least. The separation I made in my mind caused me not to split, just to separate the part of me that was purely 'absol' from the part that was purely 'human'.

However, the precautions we took in limiting ourselves didn't prevented any injuries. We both were covered in slight scratches and bruises. Adan's right hand was slightly injured as well.

Since 'Adam' was the one who 'lost', I held my paw to him, allowing him to stand up easely.

'He' took it, and I pulled 'him' up, accidentally scratching his hand. My paw pressed on the wound and I managed to not move too much. Luckily, only a moment later, 'Adam's' sensations told me it wasn't that bad.

That also revealed that the separation was still there. Focusing, I managed to dissolve the line again, giving me the sensations of both bodies again.

However, I instantly noted something was different. I looked down at 'my' right hand; it was the one I accidentally scratched.

I am not sure if it was imagination or not, but there was a very thin line of white along the back of each of my fingers, around my wrist and on my hands' back, tracing the bones below.

Shrugging, I walked back over to Hoseki, sitting down. From here, I could see all the people on the farm. Lino however was walking over to 'Adam', holding something in his hand.

* * *

"Hey, Lino. What's that there?"

"Well, I haven't told you, but I have a dream of becoming a trainer!"

"Really? Is it connected to the 'surprise' you told me about back home?" I asked, petting Fujita who somehow ended up in my lap.

"Actually, yes. You know, when you said that your brother is a ranger, I thought about the things my father told me about, and I remembered that most people get their starter from either a professor – or a pokémon ranger."

My eyes started to widen slightly, realizing what he meant.

"You packed pokéballs?"

He nodded.

"I have six with me, and if you and a pokémon decide to start their journey here, you can do so."

Thinking a moment about it, I then decided on my answer.

"I need three."

* * *

WHAT?!

Having finally enough of the human, I stepped forward, growling slightly to catch his attention.

"Ah, Ruby, right?"

{Yep. Who of us do you want to take with you?}

{I think that is pretty obvious,} the absol commented, looking at me with one eye.

{Ok, _fine_, about that I'm not the slightest bit surprised. Wonder who caught whom though. But what are the other two for?}

"She explained that she travelled with an eevee and wouldn't want to abandon her," the human said, pointing at the absol.

{That's me!}

Looking closer, I could see the eevee that just said that sitting there, getting petted by the human.

{And you are okay with that?}

{Well, Kyo always warned me about bad humans, but this one seems friendly and she trusts him! Besides, she can tell if someone is bad!}

"'Absol, the disaster pokémon. It is said that the appearance of an absol is always followed by an incident or destructive event, but in truth absol can sense those disasters in advance and tries to warn those that are caught up in it'," the other human quoted.

Though the eyes of everyone present were on him, he didn't even notice, looking down on his game, having found the entry for absol.

Sighing, I then asked again.

{And the third? Who is the third you want to take with you?}

He jabbed a thumb at Hoseki.

"He said he's more or less stuck here because of the pokémon in the forest, so I wanted to ask him if he would like to come with me. Since pokémon _do_ have the right of free choice, they can't do a thing about it," he said,

{Why would they want to, though?} I asked, confused by the implication that other humans wouldn't want the amarino to go.

"Amarino is a fossil-pokémon, which means he is currently the only alive member of his species. They are probably trying to clone him, but I neither see a ditto nor a scientist around here," he sort-of-explained.

"Right, forgot to ask," he then said, turning to the amarino.

"What do you say, Hoseki? Come with me? I promise I'll set you free as soon you want."

{Okay. But I wonder one thing.}

"What?"

{I DO NOT remember telling you my name, and the only ones here who know it are Kyoyhoa and Ruby. How do you know mine when I can be sure neither of them told you my name?}

* * *

…crap.

I fell back, exhaling.

"Well, that was a _short_ time hiding it, that's for sure. Fujita? Ruby? Do you see any other pokémon or human nearby than us five?"

Both shook their heads.

{I don't think so mr. human!}

{Me neither, why?}

"Good. You see…"

Lifting my hand, I turned it around for the pokémon to see. The white lines were clearly visible by now.

"It started around three to four months ago. Is a few days longer than four moons if you aren't familiar with human time units. Anyways, it caused something I am sure never happened before, and thus I tried to hide it."

"I know your names because _I heard them_. _You yourself told me them_," I said, looking at them.

{Really?} Hoseki asked, confused.

{But the only ones I told my name are Ruby, Kyoyhoa and Fujita,} he responded, confused.

"Correct. I literally have a second live. That is also why I didn't say the, quote unquote, 'correct' number of people present. I am not counting myself twice."

{Are you implying you have a second body? Prove it,} Ruby said, looking me in the eyes.

"{Well, how?}" I asked, using the same speech pattern, annoyed tone and facial expression with both bodies.

Everyone else shuddered, and even I had to admit that this sounded really creepy.

{Wait. If you two are one person, how did you manage to surprise yourself?} Hoseki asked, probably referring to the fight.

"In my mind there is a separation between my instincts of human and absol, I think. In turn, this means I am able to hide my fight tactics from my other half, but nothing else, really," I said, looking down at my hand slowly gaining more hairs. "Useful cuz' it means I can train myself."

{Okay. But what's happening to your hand?} Ruby then continued.

{It's better when I explain this,} I responded, switching to my absol body.

{Why?}

{I don't think it's a good idea to let Lino hear this part. Anyways, when I helped my human body up after the fight, I accidentally pressed on a wounded part with my paw. Something had to has happened there, probably a few hairs of my fur falling in the wound.}

{Okay? What's so bad about it, then?}

{I slowly started to feel the energy flowing through me – as an absol – through the area of my hand. Only in a small quantity, but it was there. Given that this won't stop, that means it is possible to create human-pokémon hybrids, and with people like team Rocket or team Plasma, I don't really think it would be a good thing if the information for the _how_ gets out.}

Ruby shuddered.

{Well, you are right about that. I couldn't imagine what humans would do knowing hybrids are possible. Even worse would it be if they got how to force a body to enter such a 'one mind, two bodies' state, as rendering a person or pokémon mindless isn't that hard, given you have the right supplies,} she said, probably thinking about some sort of doomsday scenario.

Which, in all honestly, it probably would be.

{How did you say you got this body?} Ruby then said, looking at me suspiciously.

I blinked.

{Uhh… I was born? What do you mean?}

{I assumed you'd have taken over an absols' body. But you said you were born like this; I don't think I have a problem with it. Though… you only have a few months experience as a pokémon, I wonder if you can stand up to me in a fight?}

I raised an eyebrow.

{Is that a challenge?}

{Yes,} she bluntly responded.

* * *

{No disabling blows, no non-energy bites, no hits to the crotch, tail or neck, only weak blows to the head or back. Understood?}

By now, Lino and Fujita were sitting on a nearby bench, watching the unfolding spectacle with fascination. It wasn't often a non-trainer got to see such a fight.

Hoseki and I agreed to be able to call out Ruby and my other half, respectively. That hopefully would prohibit bad injuries.

"What is going on here?"

"Oh, hi Vexx. I think you shouldn't try to intervene."

{Start!}

In the first moment, a pink-ish glow appeared around Kyoyhoas' horn, but then nothing happened.

Ruby raised an eyebrow.

{Don't know why you tried at all. I'm dark-type as well, psycho is pretty much useless against me.}

In response, Kyo just lit up her horn again. And again, and again.

{I'm not sure what you are trying, but I won't let you!} Ruby called, shooting forward.

Now Kyo stopped using future sight and focussed on Ruby instead, using her horn to swing at the absol, hitting her with a proto psycho-cut.

{That's all you go?}

{It works if it wears you down over time. Besides, have you looked around?}

{What do you –} Ruby started, only to realize the air around her had started to ripple – and started to glow pink.

Then, she got hit with the effect of future sight.

Using the bought time, Kyo immediately started using future sight again.

For a while, the continued to trade jabs, but no one got the upper hand over the other.

"Well, I can't you let stay there," my brother said, looking at his mightyena.

{DON'T you dare,} Ruby said, glaring at him. That was between Kyoyhoa and Ruby, and if he started to lead her through the fight, it wouldn't be the test of skill anymore it was right now.

Kyo even stopped for the second it took Ruby to give Vexx a deathly glare. It was only fair.

To put things short: Kyo lost the fight.

She was bigger and physically stronger, but Ruby was older, thus having more experience and endurance. Kyoyhoa called the fight because she got to tired.

While she laid there painting, I could now see my brother standing up.

"I won't question the result of this, but tell me one thing," he said, looking at Ruby.

"Weren't you the one to insist on no fighting?"

She at least had the decency to blush.


	8. Act 2 Chapter C

**Edit(ed) by: Andrizzi**

Corium, if you're still reading this: Thanks for pointing out my error. The attack is named future sight, while the _ability_ is named foresight.

* * *

"They sparred? Why not," Dad said, looking at Vexx.

"I don't think you understand," he said, pointing at me and me.

"_They_ sparred. With each other."

"Who won?" he asked, grinning.

"The absol. But only because she was heavier."

{He knows I can understand him, right?} I asked, turning to Ruby.

{As if _you_ are in a position to comply about that. For your size you're light.}

"Hey! ADAM!"

'Adam' looked up.

"Yeah?"

"I don't want you to do that again… unless you tell me first!"

I shrugged; that sounded reasonable.

{Then without attacks, eh?} Ruby said, looking at my hand.

{Doesn't means I'll tell him, besides, training that is quite different from sparring. Those attacks hurt like hell, but you can make them so that they don't kill your opponent. That's 'Adam's' goal.}

{What do you plan?}

I looked at the woods.

{The last few months were quite lively for me. I was able to do things I would never have imagined before. It also made me think about the pokémon league.}

{You don't have a chance.}

{Not yet. Besides, the pokémon league of the Astral region requires not eight but sixteen badges. One for each type, excluding normal and flight types for some reason. There is one advantage I have, though.}

{What would that be?} Ruby asked, choosing to listen to me with interest for once.

{Well, I won't have the need to tell myself where the dangers of the battlefield are. Additionally, I can shout moves that I won't use, tricking my opponent to ready themselves for a physical attack while I use a psycho-move for example.}

Ruby shrugged.

{Sounds interesting. Will you tell me when you get in the league?}

{I don't think I can, but I can tell Vexx to do so. They are broadcast over TV. Besides, I'm only thirteen in my human form; you can be a trainer from the age of sixteen. They put up that rule when some young trainers got killed by pokémon.}

{So, it'll take more than three years until you can really start to battle? Sucks.}

{Not entirely. You see, it means I can't be a trainer and travel the world on my own – but I _can_ use the arenas to train and battle in the gyms when we visit them.}

{Interesting.}

We both stayed silent for a while before Hoseki walked over to us.

{Kyoyhoa? I'd like to go with Lino instead, but still want to train with you, is that okay?}

I nodded.

Jokingly, I responded, {You will have to teach me some of your moves, then}, not knowing absol could indeed learn some strong ice-attacks.

He in turn simply agreed.

* * *

Surprisingly, the one who wasn't wanting to leave in the end was mom of all people.

"There are soo much flowers!"

"Why don't you ask her to come with you?" I deadpanned, looking through the pokédex I had in the pokémon handheld.

"Already did. She said no."

Well, isn't my call to make.

"Can't you ask her?"

"No," I said, switching to the next page.

"Why?"

"Cuz' it should be you who gets your pokémon to come with you," I responded, looking at the pokéball containing Hoseki.

"You're right," she said.

"By the way, what were you _thinking_? Sparring with a pokémon with a blade on its head?!"

"Well, we agreed on fighting in a way that wouldn't injury each other. Kyoyhoa is also way weaker than she looks, as she just grew really big really fast for some reason."

"You are not to fight with her again, understood?"

"Either learn with her and know exactly where I can hit and where not or with someone else, I'd prefer doing this with someone I trust," I responded, looking at her.

"I understand that you are worried, but I want to see the differences between us in fighting styles. Because as far as I see it, we have hundreds of material arts while pokémon just attack, but those attacks in turn are more powerful than anything we can do."

Taking the pokéball containing Kyoyhoa in my hand, I rolled it around, looking at it.

"So, will you allow me to do this? We don't fight to win or to injury each other, but to get better. It'll also mean that I can protect myself from canine pokémon when I go on my journey when I'm sixteen."

I could see mom thinking about it, but she reluctantly agreed, knowing it would be way less dangerous would I train this way.

Eventually, we started driving back home, and as soon as we were on our way, Lino turned to me, asking in a hushed tone: "How does it feel?"

Not sure what exactly he meant, I looked up from the pokédex.

"What do you mean?"

"Being able to go in those 'fights' for yourself, to actually use those powers!"

"You mean when I'm Kyoyhoa?"

"Yes."

I thought a moment about it, how was it for me?

"Well, there is a rush of energy going through you. It's hard to describe, just imagine the feeling when you get shocked by electricity, just without the pain. And you are in control of it. To be honest, I never really thought about it."

"Well, can you show me?"

I shook my head.

"Not as far as I know. Absol can use a few psychic type moves, but it cannot project its feelings like for example the gardevoir line can."

"Too bad. I really hoped I could also experience this!"

I shrugged.

Maybe…

"There could be an option. You see…"

I'm pretty sure Ruby would kill me right here and now would she see what I'm up to.

"Maybe I can help you with that in a different way. But you need to train and bond with Hoseki first."

"He was the amaura that wanted to go with me, right? Did you get why he wanted to do that, though?"

"I'm not sure," I admitted. "I just hope it's not because you're more interesting than I am."

"Well, now that I don't just have a fake, but a real amaura, I think we should check what it can do."

"Dude, they know nothing about him! He has probably a better idea of his attacks than any piece of technology on the planet!"

"True, but you forgot that the pokédex can tell us what basic attacks he can learn in case he hasn't already. Could you check?"

I did as he asked and looked the amaura's data up with my pokédex.

"Well, it writes that amaura has the potential to learn, oh crap: Blizzard? That's one of the stronger ice attacks… antic power as well? Well, not that surprising, considered that he is stone type as well. I'll look over it later."

After that, we fell silent, both thinking about the future.

* * *

"Are you sure?"

"He hasn't lied to me yet. We also have the photo he made."

"You mean there's an honest-to-god absol with the size of a horse?"

"Not that big, but I think you get the picture. Where's the idiotic trio, by the way?"

"Its 'testing' a new robot. I don't think I need to say more."

Both uniformed figures fell silent for a moment.

"So, when will you send them to get the absol?"

"As soon as possible. We can't have it learn too many moves or we will probably not be able to get it in our possession, thanks to the moves absol can learn."

"Like static."

"Correct, but I'm more concerned about perish song and thunderbolt. Thunder? One of those two."

"And what if we use ground types?"

"Let's see…" the one sitting at the computer said, bringing up a chart with the moves absols could learn.

"Not good, but not the worst choice either, I think. Wouldn't absols be able to use Ice beam."

"We don't know yet which moves this absol learned. How about we observe them and use our knowledge to our advantage?"

"Sounds good."


	9. Act 2 Chapter D

**Edit(ed) by: Andrizzi**

Aand I corrected writing the pokémon in the wrong language.

* * *

I was looking at my hand in concern. It now had turned completely white, and I bought make-up in the colour of my skin to hide it. I still needed to be careful with grabbing anything with my right hand.

Luckily, while it had adapted the white colour of an absol's paw, it had not changed in its form.

That one would be a tad harder to explain.

Currently, I had 'myself' and Kyoyhoa separated, which allowed me to train my attacks in the backyard while I could worry about my other body.

"Do you think it'll get worse?" Lino asked, looking down at it.

Shivering because Kyoyhoa just got by an ice attack, I responded: "No."

I picked up a small rubber ball from a nearby shelf and threw it up a few times.

"You see, there is something interesting about my transformation," I said, enveloping it with just enough power to levitate it a few centimetres above my palm.

"I can sense a limit, and I do not think I can go above it easily. That limit seems to be the amount of mythical power that my body can handle in this state."

Lino nodded.

"By the way, after you told me about the mega evolution, I started looking around. My father actually has a keystone he isn't using anymore. He is willing to lend it to you," he explained, looking at the hovering ball.

I shrugged.

"Without an absolnite, a keystone is kind of useless. Anyways, I think I can only do basic things with this, like levitating small object. I think I am able to form psycho cut and protection as well, but I haven't tried yet."

"If you do that, it means that you are way better protected from wild pokémon. By the way, how are the two?"

I stepped to the window, looking out. Kyoyhoa was currently using psychic attacks to wear down Hoseki, who in turn was using ice-attacks to slow down Kyoyhoa.

"They're good," I responded, picking up a sack with oran and leppa berries.

After I called the two and removed the effect that was separating our minds, I gave Lino enough berries to feed Hoseki, then called Fujita to me, who was until there resting in the kitchen.

{It's food time?}

"Yep," I responded, holding out one leppa berry to her.

Since she wasn't growing or fighting, she wasn't needing as much food as the other two, so only a few berries were enough to satisfy her.

After that, I fed Kyoyhoa.

It might sound weird, but it was no different from when I would eat something myself. The only difference is a slight change of perspective, and it did neither feel like I was fed nor like I was feeding someone.

And even if, it would have been such a minor discomfort that I could have completely ignored it anyways.

Having finished eating, I told Lino and my parents I'd go on a walk with Kyoyhoa.

* * *

{Why can't I come?} Fujita asked, and I bent down, petting her.

"I want to be a while on my own. Don't worry, if it comes to a fight, I'll call and come back here. And I know the move 'rest', so even if I get injured, I can just let it vanish," I responded, pocketing a few berries as well.

While many berries were impossible to eat for humans, the general berries, like oran, leppa and sitrus berry were edible for them. I developed a taste for them, and they were incredibly cheap as well. So, I figured 'why not' and started eating them as well as human.

I decided to try something new. Since Kyoyhoa was that big, I decided to climb on her, and it wasn't that heavy for her. I held myself steady, and when she started running, it was in a smooth enough motion that it wasn't hurting me.

Eventually, we arrived at a park, near the outskirts of the city. Here still were some pokémon, and it was the most-visited park by pokémon owners in the city. There, I got down from Kyo, as there was no reason to stay on her back any longer.

Since I wasn't old enough yet, I wasn't allowed to enter any battles with my pokémon, but that was okay for me.

Eventually, I sat down on a bank, and Kyoyhoa next to me. The weather was good, and I enjoyed the sun for a while.

* * *

{GET HER!}

The riolu ran through a nearby bush, only to surface in a wide-open area, humans and pokémon sitting around.

On first glance, that seemed like she was trapped now, but there was always a chance they would help her.

However, she saw only one or two pokémon that could actually do something. And they all were right next to a human, so there was only a very slight chance that any of them would do anything.

She continued running, but when she looked backwards to see where the heracross was, she ran into something soft that stopped her.

Looking up, she could see that an enormous, white pokémon had stopped her, but she realized she had nearly no chance. Because the pokémon she bumped in was a canine, there was a good chance that it would just shove her away.

A head, nearly as big as her body looked down at her, red eyes glinting, an enormous horn on its head.

There were only a few pokémon that reached such a size, and it was higher than the heracross, even though it was standing on four legs.

When she opened her mouth to speak, the Riolu realized that the pokémon in front of her was a female, although she would have guessed it to be a male at first glance.

{Now, why are you so scared, little one?}

Her voice held a hint of steel but was completely gentle. She felt save, but only for a split second.

{The heracross there is chasing me!}

The white pokémons eyes narrowed.

{Why?}

However, before she could answer, the heracross arrived at their position, lunging at her. To her surprise, the hit never connected.

A human was standing behind the heracross, holding it back. It was trapped in such an unfortunate position that it couldn't attack either of the pokémon in front of it nor the human behind it.

{I won't ask a third time. Why is he chasing you?} the pokémon asked, this time without that much warmth in her voice as before.

{I lived in the woods, but eventually some humans came and destroyed the area I was living in. I was searching for a new place to stay, and accidentally broke in the territory of the heracross, who then started to hunt me…}

{What is your excuse, then?} she asked, looking at the bug, still struggling to escape the human's grip.

{She is in my hunting grounds! She is fair game!}

{She _was_,} the canine growled, and the Riolu' heart sank. But the next words lifted her spirit again.

{This park is no part of your hunting grounds or territory. If you were to say that it is, there are many, _many_ pokémon around who would certainly disagree with you. Now, you have two options: You can leave peacefully – or you can decide to fight.}

{Fine! I'll leave,} the beetle said, and the white pokémon nodded to the human, who in turn released the beetle and took a step back.

Turning around, the heracross took a step away, only to turn around in a blur of motion and slash at her.

However, a black, curved blade stopped the attack.

{You have no idea what I am, are you? I am not called the _disaster_ pokémon for nothing. I can sense if I will take a bad injury form something, can sense earthquakes and similar natural events and am able to foretell bad luck.}

The eyes of the insect widened, and before it could do anything, an enormous blast of pink energy formed along the horn, blasting it and sending it flying in the bushes.

{Thank you!} she exclaimed, hugging the leg of the white pokémon.

"No problem. Though, I don't think it's safe for you to stay here, little one," the human commented, looking at her with a gentle look.

She blinked in surprise, looking between the human and the pokémon in front of her.

"Surprised?"

{Of course! How does your human understand pokémon?}

{Ah, that depends on a few things. First, from your posture one can already pretty much guess what you said. Secondly, he is able to understand pokémon since he gained a few traits of them,} she responded, laying down.

Before she closed her eyes, she winked at her.

{Don't worry, he's harmless.}

{What do you mean by tha – whoa!} she started to ask but got interrupted as two hands lifted her up on the bench the human was sitting on.

"So, do you have a name?"

She shook her head.

{What did you mean when you said its unsafe for me to stay here?} she asked, looking at him from the spot he placed her on the bench.

"Well, around here are some pretty strong pokémon. I assume that Kyo only stunned the beetle, not damaged it. Since this is one of the few green places in the city, the grounds are highly searched after by pokémon. Also, I bet that the beetle will attack you again as soon as we leave."

She shuddered, realizing that he was right.

"If I were you, I'd return to places far away from humans. While the pokémon are more aggressive out there, they aren't as strong as they are here. Since many of us enjoy fighting with our partners, we often challenge the pokémon nearby, giving them battle experience in turn," he said, petting the white pokémon to his left.

{I could get stronger!}

"Well, that's possible as well. Berry?" he asked, holding out an oran berry to her.

Only now realizing how hungry the whole thing made her, she grabbed the slightly sour oran berry, devouring it in a few seconds.

Chuckling, he pulled out a second one, but instead of giving it to her, he bit into itself. She was amazed by that; she had seen humans trying berries before.

Most of the time, they spit them back out nearly immediately.

"What? There are a few berries that humans can eat."

{Which ones?}

"At least sitrus, oran, leppa and cheri berry. I only have oran berries and leppa berries on me, though."

{…can I get another one?}

"Sure," he said, handing her another oran berry.

This time, she ate a bit slower.

"Hey. I remember you saying that you wanted to get stronger. I'm not old enough to have pokémon battles yet, but what would you say if I asked you to come with me?"

{Can I talk with your pokémon about it first?} she asked, looking at the white, enormous canine.

"No. Well, I mean you _can_, but she would give you the exact same answers as I'd give them you."

{Oh, ok. Why did you two protect me?}

"Because it was the right thing to do. It is what I would have wished for myself in that situation."

She then thought a moment about what questions she could ask.

{How good can you fight?}

He lifted his right hand and it started to glow pink, a layer of psionic energy forming over it.

"Well enough."

Amazed, she touched the light, verifying that it was more than just a trick of light.

{You will protect me and make me stronger?}

"If that is what you want. I have to make some agreement with my parents if you stay at my house, though."

{What do you mean?} she asked, now wondering what could cause him to say such a thing.

"Well, there is already an eevee and an amarino staying at our house."

{You think they will say it becomes too much,} she realized, thinking how she could still stay with him.

"We don't even know if they'll say that. So, what do you say? Friends?"

Smiling for the first time truthful, she looked at him.

{Okay.}


	10. Act 2 Chapter E

**Edit(ed) by: Andrizzi.**

**The story about self-defense is true, by the way.**

* * *

The Riolu was riding on Kyoyhoa while I was walking next to the two. While there was enough space for us, it would have eventually become uncomfortable for me to do so.

However, I got a sudden but incredible strong feeling of dread sneaking up on me, one I could even feel in my hand, which started to hurt.

"Say, what do you think about killing in self-defence?"

{I do not like the thought of taking a life,} she said, looking down.

{But… if there is no other way… I would do it.}

{Good,} Kyoyhoa said.

"While it may sound cruel, doing something like this is actually justifiable. There was once a case where a man got robbed, warned his attackers that he had a knife on him and would kill them were they to come any closer. They did, and he killed one of them. He was judged guilt-free but had to pay the price of experiencing taking a life away."

{How can you talk like that about it?}

Misinterpreting what she was asking, I pointed at Kyo.

"Well, I spent much time with" – and specifically as – "Kyoyhoa. That caused me to learn much about the world of wild pokémon and how they would kill each other about territories and similar things."

Turning right, I gathered as much energy in my arm as possible. It became painful, but not visible.

"Additionally," I said, activating protection it in just the right moment to block the bullet headed for my arm. Since I formed it directly around my arm, it seemed like it just had missed, as the clothing took no damage.

"There is an ability of absol, which is the species of Kyoyhoa."

I brought the shield up again, blocking a bullet from another direction.

"Foresight – they can foretell disasters and bad luck," I said, channelling the energy I gathered in an attack.

* * *

"Be careful. I don't like his stance."

"Okay," came the short response, and the leader of the small team concentrated back on the fight they started.

As to prove her words, the human shot forwards, pink energy gathering around his hands. He crossed the street and the distance to one of the grunts in a blur, bringing down a pink beam of energy on the grunt just two seconds after he started moving, way too fast to react.

'Who in the world _is_ that boy?'

The absol moved in the same moment, so she could still see it launching a psycho-cut at the top of a building before the camera broke, hitting another grunt square in the chest.

About the grunt the human attacked though, she could not say anything. The camera signal got dark in the moment the attack connected, indicating a blow way too powerful to survive. Unluckily, that was their only video feed.

* * *

My eyes locked upon the leader of the grunts.

"I may not be a good fighter by pokémon standards, but I am able to spar with them and win, occasionally. And each and every pokémon is capable of killing an average human, and even those who are trained as fighters."

"Stand back!"

A quick movement of my hand brought down his hand, which was holding a gun.

"I do not enjoy doing this, though," I said, using Kyoyhoas' power to pin him against the wall he was standing before just a moment ago.

Out of his pocket, I drew a red 'R'.

"Team Rocket, huh? The only truly… who am I kidding… halfway successful criminal organisation specialized on crimes concerning or with pokémon. Explains why your plan wasn't _completely_ idiotic."

A sense of dread caused me to drop my head, and another bullet raced over me. A quick psycho-cut took care of that.

Grabbing the small communicator in his ear, I pulled it out, twirling it in my fingers. Say what you want, but I enjoyed acting like I was an evil mastermind in this situation.

"Additionally… Kyoyhoa was wild until just a few days ago, and she does not know that a pokémon _should_ not attack a human unless provoked. It isn't forbidden, either. Pokémon are just trained to not attack humans, because we fear their powers, and that rightfully so."

{Will you… kill him?} I head the small pokémon next to me ask.

{He will not,} Kyoyhoa responded.

{He will do something _worse_,} she said, grinning at the leader of the grunts, showing _way_ too much teeth than should fit in a normal grin – even for a canine.

I placed the earpiece in my ear, took his gun, pointed it at my still active shield that stopped bullets, then spoke up.

"Hello? I assume that one of the higher-ups or coordinators can hear me, right?"

* * *

Shit.

"Yes. What do you want?"

"I just wanted to tell you that I bested your little assassination team. Or whatever this was supposed to be," the answer came from the other side.

A few gunshots were heard, and someone was coughing and wheezing, clearly in pain.

Her blood froze. Did that kid just kill someone? Without hesitation?

"Put it simply, if another one comes… I will _not_ kill them. Instead, I'll see what interesting things I can do with them. _Additionally,_ I will come after you. One would think you would have learned by now not to leave your marks on each and every one of your grunts, team Rocket."

"I knew that would bite us in the ass someday," her colleague commented whispering.

"While I cannot bring you down personally, no matter how strong I get, I _can _bring pokémon together. And, given enough time, probably enough of them to simply overrun your bases and stomp them in the ground that good that not even dust stays back. Were they your best? If yes, I'm sorely disappointed. It took me what, fifteen seconds to beat them? But it also means I know – and _you_ know – that you have no chance against me. Now, I will leave, and you know what'll happen if you try something like this again."

After saying that, they heard another gunshot, and the connection collapsed.

"I told you that was a bad idea from the beginning. Both attacking the kid and trying to use guns instead of pokémon. They only work if they can't do anything against it."

"I didn't give the order, you know that?" she snapped back, grabbing her phone and dialling her superiors number.

Four grunts missing, two at least servery wounded, one unknown, one probably dead. She was _not_ looking forward to explaining how an easy 'capture' mission turned out like that.

* * *

I pointed the gun at the leader, who was still wheezing slightly from the blows Kyoyhoa had delivered earlier.

"There is still a bullet in the gun, so you better do what I say. Get your people and vanish from my eyes, and if anything about _this,_" I said, lifting my right arm before continuing "comes to _either_ the media _or_ anyone you know, you're dead for real. _UNDERSTOOD?_"

He gave a shaky nod, then I knocked him out as well.

"Come, we're leaving," I said, crumpling the gun with telekinesis.

{You made them think he's dead? That's really evil,} the small blue pokémon exclaimed, looking at me.

As soon as we were a few hundred meters away, I nearly collapsed, holding my arm in pain.

{Are you okay?} the jackal pokémon asked, looking at me in worry.

I took out and ate an oran berry, knowing it would help with at least the fatigue.

"Yeah… that took a lot out of me. Both the fighting and the acting."

I looked at my fingers. The energies used through the fight had blown away the make-up, leaving the now white discoloured hand and arm visible, while the had fingers started turning black as well.

"It seems that this continues further each time I use powers not meant to be wielded by humans. I hope it's only visual, then I can at least still hide it."

{Seems like it,} she said, looking at both my hands.

{See? If they would change in any way, then your fingers should have changed a little bit already! They haven't, so you're probably good.}

"Thank you. I think I'll just take a nap for now," I responded before falling asleep/unconscious.

* * *

{Is he okay?} the riolu asked, looking down at the slightly snoring human.

{He is,} I responded.

Carefully picking him up, I placed my other body on myself so that it wouldn't fall down. Of course, having a small hold of psionic energy on it helped, too.

After a while of walking, we eventually arrived at the house. Since my family didn't knew what connection was between me and, well, me, they left me in, and I placed 'Adam' down on 'his' bed.

{Now, since we are here, I guess I should be truthful with you,} I said, levitating over an empty pokéball.

{You know those?}

{Yeah, pokémon can enter those, right?}

{Correct, but they also make you property of the one who captures you. Since he'd touched them last, if you enter one, they'll link you to him.}

I placed it down on the floor, lying down to be able to look her in the eyes without looking down.

{However, this isn't what I meant when I said you should know the truth. I mean something else. This is something I decided not to hide from any partners of mine, and if you consider staying here, you should know and accept my situation.}

{Is there something wrong with your body? I remember him using powers similar to yours.}

So, she did notice.

{That is actually unconnected, although a funny coincidence. It's different. 'Kyoyhoa' the absol and 'Adam' the human share one soul.}

{What! Do you mean if one of you dies the other does too?}

{Uhhh…no idea. Never thought about that one. However, those two beings also share the same _mind_,} I said, looking at the bed currently occupied by Adam.

{Wait. You mean you are Adam and you are Kyoyhoa? That's why you said he was fine! But how does it work?}

Shrugging, I stood up again and pulled down the bag with oran berries, eating one of them.

In one bite.

{Not sure. I'll definitively abuse the hell out of it, though.}

{What do you mean?}

{In pokémon battles between two trainers, they can usually see the battlefield from a higher or outside position. That means they can in most cases see more than the pokémon can. With one mind controlling two bodies, that means I can simultaneously see the dangers and dodge them, without having to take time to shout a warning.}

{Impressive! But do you even need me, then?}

{Not always, but an absol alone cannot beat any opponent. While my power allowed me to throw away the heracross in the park, I would have been unable to fight it without tricks. Luckily, it did not know that.}

{What do you mean?}

{Surely you have seen that a fire attack can't hurt a water pokémon, but can easily kill a plant pokémon? That is this. An attack from a bug-pokemon deals way more damage to me than any other type of attack.}

{So, what am I strong against?}

I thought a moment about it, then pulled a paper which listed the type weaknesses out.

{You are a fight-type pokémon and will evolve in a fighting-steel type pokémon. That means your attacks will deal more damage if they are from either of those types. Fairy, ice, rock, steel and dark types are vulnerable to you. Since I am a dark type, and you have a high attack strength, you can probably easily beat me. So, when I fight another riolu or lucario, I would need a fairy or flying pokémon – and while I _could_ learn a flying attack, it would be _ridiculously_ hard to do so.}

{Really?} she asked, looking at me with wide eyes.

{Really. But you cannot do that yet, you know? You need to train first, so that you can actually do some damage or actually get hit and stay in the fight. You can train with Fujita, though.}

{Who?}

Realizing I never introduced the two, I walked out, telling the riolu to follow me.

In the garden, Fujita was currently talking with Hoseki.

{Oh, hello Kyoyhoa. Why are you here?} the latter one asked, looking at me.

{The young one here will probably stay with us. Fujita!}

{Hey, Kyo! I got faster!}

{Maybe you can show me later,} I responded, lying down.

{Right now, though, I want you to introduce to our guest. She'll probably stay.}

The riolu looked a moment at her, then walked up to her.

The eevees' eyes lit up, and she hugged the blue pokémon before she could move.

{She's cute! Can we keep her?}

Smiling at the sight, I nodded.

Chuckling, I responded.

{I hope so. I still think I can persuade my parents to allow me to do that, though.}

{Well, not right now! Now you're playing with us!}

I simply couldn't say no to that smile.


	11. Act 2 Chapter F

**Edit(ed) by: Andrizzi**

* * *

"Adam?"

Having slept through the rest of the day and the following night, I was still quite tired, but I had enough presence of mind to re-colour my hand.

"Yeah?" I asked, not looking up from breakfast.

"Why were you so tired that you slept nearly a day?"

Lifting my right hand, I looked at it.

I decided not to tell a complete lie, as that would be far too easy to find out.

"When I was on my way back from the park where I saved the riolu, I accidentally touched Kyo's psionic energy. After that, I don't remember much."

"Isn't Kyoyhoa a dark-type?"

"Yeah, but absol can also learn many psychic moves, some rock attacks and even one flying-type move. Too bad the wings in the mega evolution are just visual."

"I haven't heard of such a thing happening yet. Maybe we should take you to the doc later. Any you said you saved the riolu. What happened?"

"A heracross tried to kill it. Kyo stopped it and threw it back from where it came."

"Doesn't explains why it's in the house."

"Well, she had either that option or could go back in the wilderness. Since I would never force her to battle if she was unwilling, and also told her this, she asked me if she could come with me."

For some reason, my dad took that moment to facepalm.

"How many pokémon do you plan to take with you that way?"

"I don't plan for it," I deadpanned, taking the water to refill my glass.

He just groaned.

"Hey! It's costing you _less_ than before! The berries are even here in the city incredibly cheap since they grow that fast! And it isn't as if there were any problems with them cleaning up or anything!" I protested, taking a leppa berry from a bowl and taking a bite out of it.

"Anyways, I assume she can stay? As far as she told me, there is not really much she can do right now. It's either staying here or going back in the wilderness. And since she wanted to get stronger without having to risk injuries, she will probably just return here," I said, already knowing I could convince my parents to let her stay.

"Well, she needs a name," my father responded, taking a long sip from his coffee.

* * *

{Adam wants to see you,} I said, looking at the bipedal pokémon.

{How can you – oh, right. Where is he?}

{The kitchen.}

* * *

"Ah, thank you for coming," I said as she entered the kitchen.

"We were just thinking about a name for you."

{Don't act so surprised. And do you really think I need one?}

"I think you do. Hmmm, what does 'steel' mean in other languages? Naah, too obvious. 'Aurora' is also _so_ cliché by now that nobody wants to name their lucario or riolu like that."

To her credit, she only blinked once upon hearing that suggestions.

"How about Kiran?"

She shook her head.

"Nabe?"

{No. May I make a suggestion?} she asked, cutting off any further naming ideas from my side.

"Of course."

{Skylar.}

"That doesn't sound half bad…" I mused, thinking about it for a minute.

"You know we can only hear one half of your conversation, right?"

"Ah, I forgot. She just told me that she thinks 'Skylar' is a good name for her."

"Has it any hidden meaning?"

"No idea, and even if, in most cases I think we can ignore it. So, what do you think?"

"I like that name," Mom said, looking down at the canine.

"Skylar it is!"

* * *

"You seem awfully chipper today," Lino commented upon seeing me.

"You don't know yet? There's a riolu staying with us now."

"Can I see it?"

"Her, and you have to ask if she wants to play with you, ok?"

"I will ask, of course! What do you think I am?"

"An overexcited teenager?"

"Touché. Anything insane happened while I wasn't there?"

"Nothing much. I just scared a few guys from team rocket, at the low cost of the colour of my entire right arm," I said, drawing down my shirt far enough that he was able to see the white I haven't covered.

"Well, it seems to change only in colour."

"Hmm, Skylar said nearly the same thing when she looked at it."

"Is that the name of the riolu?"

I nodded.

"By the way, my dad got a call from the prof this morning."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Why?" I asked, having no idea what the professor of the region would want from the geologist.

"Well, remember the thing about the keystone? After I told my dad about your connection with your absol, he probably told the professor he wanted an absolnit. You may not know it, but the two are old friends," he said, handing me a bag.

Opening it, I saw that it contained two stones, both in a metal clasp with a leather string. I could wear them around my neck or arm.

"Aren't those super rare?"

"Well… usually yes. However, dad often talked about how he helped discovering the mega stones. He found a method to determine if a mega stone is likely to have formed in an area. For that, they still owe him, as it is to a great part his work that allowed mega stones to become aviable to the public in the first place."

He fell silent for a moment.

"If that's a _good_ thing though is another question."

I could only nod. Especially before the age restriction was changed from eleven to sixteen, many injuries took place, and giving a child the ability to make something dangerous even more powerful? That could only end in disaster.

"Ah, and there is another thing. The prof is currently searching for an aura- or life-sensitive person or pokémon, since he has an egg he knows is alive, but it simply isn't hatching. Maybe you should visit him if the riolu evolves."

I shrugged.

"Eggs can stay alive for years. Maybe it's just not warm enough."

"Right. Uh, if you're interested, here's the address of him," he said, giving me a small card.

"Professor kalopanax lives in this concrete jungle? Really? How can he even study pokémon?"

"He's living at the edge of the city near the big park you like to visit."

I shrugged, maybe this wouldn't be too bad. I also already knew where the park was, so I could visit him when I was there the next time.


	12. Act 2 Chapter G

**Edit(ed) by: Andrizzi**

* * *

Around a week later, I was back in the park, planning on staying a while before visiting the professor.

Skylar was with me.

{Aren't you supposed to wear the _colorful_ stone?}

I chuckled.

"Usually, yes. But I wanted to try something out. If it works, it'll give me an incredible advantage in battle."

{The mega evolution is supposed to take a pokémon and make it stronger. At the same time, it changes form, as well,} I continued as Kyoyhoa, placing a paw on the keystone around my neck.

"You see, after what happened with my powers, I want to see if this makes it painless for me to use them, and if not, how strong they get."

{You think you'll change? I can't imagine you transforming like a pokémon though…}

{That's why we test such things, to find out if they work or not. If it doesn't work, we'll just switch the stones back.}

I laid back, looking up at the sky. For a moment, everything was quiet.

However, I once again felt the indication for something negative, and creaked open an eye just enough to look around.

There were a bibor, the same heracross from a week before and a scythor as well.

"Crap… we still have no moves that work well against bug-types," I said under my breath, so that only Skylar could hear me.

{Hah! They can't beat three of us that easy,} the heracross commented.

{You said you wanted to test the stones? Now would be a good moment,} Skylar hissed, right next to my ear.

I touched the stones first with my right hand, then with my left paw while concentrating on the mega evolution. I did not need to feel the bound between 'me' and 'Kyoyhoa', as I already knew what it was.

A purple light shone from the stones, but seemingly nothing changed. However, I felt something like an electric charge run along my right arm, before sinking in it. After that, it ran over my body, but it didn't feel like there was anything substantial changed. Except my color.

{What the hell was that right now? Humans don't just change color,} the scythor commented.

"[Usually, they don't.]" I responded, noticing that my voice changed to sound more similar to that of a pokémon. My words were still audible for humans though.

{Isn't important anyways. Just remember that the human is a threat as well,} the heracross said before charging.

A scratch threw the heracross back.

{That isn't how you do that,} the scythor commented before rushing forwards and trying to land a hit on Kyoyhoa.

She in turn lit her horn up purple for a moment, then landed an attack on the scythor before it could connect.

{Is that 'me first'? Don't use common attacks, use flying attacks and bug moves!} the scythor said, mentioning for the bibor to attack from two sides.

Meanwhile, the heracross had snuck upon me and Skylar.

"[Don't think I have forgotten about you,]" I said, looking at it.

{It was wort a try,} it responded, shooting forwards.

However, it bounced off my protection.

{How long do you think you can keep that up? Humans can't use moves all that well.}

I chuckled.

"[The power is traded for control,]" I responded, using psychic energy to form a flower.

"[As long as I maintain concentration, this won't drop.]"

I had myself separated enough to be able to concentrate properly on fighting with both bodies. So, I didn't notice the scythor charging at me to break the shield from behind.

Skylar did, though.

{Duck!}

Trusting her, I let myself fall when I heard that, and the scythor crashed in the heracross.

I peeled the protection off my body, then formed it around the two dazzled pokémon on the ground. While they noticed, and attacked the shield causing me to get a strong headache as I received feedback from the shield, it allowed me to concentrate on the bibor who was trying to hit Kyoyhoa.

While he had two arms made to be weapons and fast as well, Kyoyhoa wasn't lacking, and when she wasn't able to deflect one of them, she stepped aside in such a way they caused the bibor to stumble.

And while I could not yet use two attacks at the same time in this body, what I could do was walk up to the bibor and punch it on the head, causing it to drop and giving Kyoyhoa the opening needed to land a strong psycho-cut along it's chest, causing no damage, but a stumble.

Bug-types were very light as well. So, I flipped the bibor over when it came back in my reach, and Kyoyhoa pinned it down.´

That was _way_ too close for my liking, and I _again_ won by pure chance. One wrong move (pardon the pun), and this would have ended in disaster.

{Let us out!}

"[Nope,]" I shot back, picking up the bibor.

[Now, buster, I don't know if you can talk or not, but you should hear my warning. I'll say to you the same as I said to the humans who tried something similar. Come at me again, and you're done for, which you _also_ are when you tell anyone about what happened here today,] I growled, somehow without speaking the words.

[Are we clear?] I asked, my hand grabbing the place where his upper right limb connected with his body and squeezing slightly.

{Yes! I won't bother you again!} he said, before flying away.

"[Now, for you two idiots it's the same. NEVER show yourself to me again, don't talk about this, and I won't hold a grudge against you,]" I said, dissolving the shield and forming a blade of psionic energy instead.

{Fine,} the scythor said, before flying away. The heracross tried to vanish as well, but I was faster and grabbed its horn before it could do so.

{Come on, again?}

[I already warned you, didn't I?]

His eyes grew big, realizing how badly he had screwed up.

{Please don't hurt me!}

[I won't.]

He let go of his breath.

[_Physically_.]

{Wha-}

* * *

When the heracross started walking away as if hit, Skylar looked at the human.

{Do you know that you look scary like that?}

"[Hmm? What do you mean?]"

She pointed at his face.

{Red eyes and black-white, long hair that looks like it could move on its own. Your coloration completely changed to that of an absol.}

As if to prove her wrong, in that exact moment, a purple flash ran along him, returning his colors to their normal state.

For a moment, he stood still, then he groaned, nearly falling over.

{Are you okay?}

"Y-yeah… I'm incredibly exhausted though, and everything is sore. I don't believe I can do that again, at least not in the next few days."

* * *

I looked down at my hands in worry. While I was before able to use protect and a small range of psychic moves, what I just did to the heracross was something I should have been unable to do.

Simply put, I made it so that he would be unable to see me, Skylar or Kyoyhoa unless he was standing right in front of us. Additionally, I now knew that the bug was indeed a 'he'.

{What's on your mind?}

"I shouldn't have been able to enter his mind and do something like… _THAT!_" I responded, pointing to where we just came from.

{Well, as far as I see it, you traded power for precision, control and a quite painful drawback. There was nearly no power in that shield, but it was as hard as steel, right?}

"You're not wrong. I'll look into that later. Though, when I attacked the grunt that shot at us first, he only fell unconscious from the hit, he didn't even bleed. I did not want to injure him, and it seems that in turn I also hadn't."

Looking up at the building in front of us, I rang the bell.

"Coming!"

A few moments later, an around forty years old man opened the door. He was slightly taller than I was, his eyes were a very light, icy blue and his hair was blond. Below the white mantle, he wore a black shirt and jeans.

"Who are you?"

"Adam. Lino gave me a mega stone for my absol, and I wanted to thank you for that, and maybe take a look at the egg he was talking about."

"Oh, right! Please come in."

We walked up a flight of stairs, then landed in a room where many stone were on the walls and a egg stood on a pedestal to the side of the room.

I immediately felt that something was weird with the egg.

"May you leave us for a moment?"

"Of course. See if you can find out what's wrong with the egg, okay?"

I nodded, then stepped closer to it.

"Interesting…" I said, sensing nothing _inside_ of it.

"It's empty," I said, placing a hand on it.

"That is a feeling I know from somewhere, but I cannot say from where."

{Well, who do you meet with each time? If you say you know it but didn't noticed it or spoke about it, it is probably because you are used to it,} Skylar commented.

I thought a moment about it.

"Well, you could be right," I responded, concentrating on 'Kyoyhoa'. Her body was normal, but there was some underlying energy in it. In other words, the mind.

Realizing what I was feeling, I purely concentrated on myself, and I could feel the energy within Kyoyhoa ebbing off, until she just stood there, breathing. The energy had vanished nearly fully.

Carefully placing a bit of energy in the egg, I could feel the same thing as half a year before – and I got a killer headache in the same moment. With my other injuries…

"Argh!"

"You okay there?" I heard Kalopanax call from the other side of the lab.

"Kind of! I can get the egg to hatch, I think, but I'll need to take it with me."

"Fine with me! Do you need anything else?"

"Not sure, one moment, please!"

Opening the pokédex I got after Kyoyhoa started living with me – it was more complete than the one in the games – I looked for the requirements for baby pokémon, since I couldn't tell what pokémon it would be.

"What is that egg even from, professor?"

"A ninetails!"

"Thanks!" I shouted back before opening the pokédex on the page describing vulpix, then opened the entry for their young.

Looking over it, I realized it was saying the same as I already 'ahem' experienced.

Berry juice, especially cheri, oran and sitrus juice was listed as recommended 'food' for baby pokémon. Figy berries weren't edible for the first few weeks, but for some reason was recommended after that. It seemed that they tasted especially well for fire pokémon, luckily, they were just recommended, not in any way needed for the growth of a young vulpix.

"Found something?" he asked after having finished whatever he was doing earlier.

I nodded.

"Though I have to ask, how long does a pokémon need to hatch after its body has formed at least partially?"

"Approximately one to two months, why?"

"Because that is the most likely amount of time it'll need. After that, since Kyoyhoa used part of her life force to make this probable, the young one will probably recognize her as a parent,"

"Ah, interesting. In that case, I'll get a few things you'll need to raise a young pokémon."

"That won't be necessary."

"Oh? Why?"

"I already have a bunch of berries, because Kyo enjoys them. Additionally, my brother is a pokémon ranger, he can tell me what I need to know."

"Ah, I understand. Please tell me about the young one's development, though, okay?"

I nodded, then opened my pokédex to check for the nearest arena.

Surprisingly enough, Caerdydd had an electric-type gym. Originally, I thought that in this town was nothing alive save humans, but since then I got corrected in that assumption quite often already.

"Skylar? What do you think, should I try to beat the gym leader here?"

"Well, if you want to beat the gym leader, you need a license for battle. You can gain one by finishing a test here or by becoming fourteen, this is for security reasons," the professor said, having overheard what I said.

I blinked.

"Wait. I thought you can only become a trainer with sixteen?"

"You're only allowed to go through the wilderness when you're sixteen or older or have completed the test I spoke of. Fighting is something different, though, and younger people are allowed to fight. That way, you can gain experience early on and defend yourself better later on."

"I'll turn fourteen in the middle of summer," I realized, looking at my ID.

"That means I can just show up there one day and ask for a battle?"

"Well… it would be better if you call a few days in advance. That way, they know you'll come and reserve a place for you. Especially in the summer breaks, many young trainers still going to school are trying to beat the gyms, so there is a chance you'll be unable to actually enter the fight when you aren't announcing yourself," he said, flipping through a small book he pulled out of a pocket.

"Here! The telephone number and address of the gym, but I'll assume you have that already. The gym is mid-level, meaning the gym leader will battle you with strong pokémon, but only with maximal one more than you have yourself, to a maximum of three for both sides. If you fight with two or three – more isn't allowed, as said before – you can switch, but you can't heal your pokémon. Same rules apply for the gym leader. To enter the pokémon league, you need to best at _least_ eight mid-level gyms and two high-level gyms."

Interested what he meant, I clicked on the difficulty rating of the gym.

'_Low-Level: You're allowed to heal, and switch pokémon. The gym leader uses the same number of pokémon you do – maximal three._

_Mid-Level: Challenger and gym leader can't heal, but switch pokémon. The gym leader uses three pokémon but will use only two if you have only one pokémon._

_High-Level: Neither party can heal nor switch, _but _the gym leader can switch _ONCE_. He will have always use three pokémon, but the gym leader can bring six pokémon. You can only bring three.'_

"The high-level sounds just like it's made to get people to give up."

"Is the intention," the professor admitted.

"Since they're that hard to beat, only those who are skilled an enter the pokémon league. That is prohibiting preventable injuries and crushing defeats, as everyone else there is at least strong enough to beat the strong gym leaders, and there are still over two thousand trainers entering the global pokémon league each year."

I nodded, then grabbed my phone to dial the number of the gym.

* * *

And that concludes the last chapter of the second act. I will probably write two to five chapters a week (unless I'm bored), and since I still have (at the point of writing this which is the of January, 2020) the third act written out completely, there should for a while be a stable update schedule. I'm aiming for one chapter per day (excluding weekends), so you should be good for quite a while, but I _still_ reserve myself the right to change it at any time, as I do this voluntary.


	13. Act 3 Chapter 1

**Edit(ed) by: Andrizzi**

* * *

**Act 3**

* * *

About a month had passed.

Since I visited the professor and took the egg home, dad decided it was useless to argue with me about keeping pokémon with me and started instead teasing me that I made a cute couple with Kyoyhoa, probably because he saw what happened at the ranch.

Currently, I was looking over the mega stones and an outfit I ordered. I made a bit of money by searching rare berries as Kyoyhoa (I excused that with her needing a bit of time to herself) and selling them, then I tasked a tailor with sewing an outfit for me.

While the mega evolution changed my looks, it did not change my clothes.

The clothes I ordered were a set of white and black clothes. I wanted black gloves, white jeans with a black belt, a black shirt with a turtleneck and a white jacket with a collar of artificial, white fur. Except of the fur, all of the fabric was _very_ thin and resilient, making it easy to fold together and put away in a small space.

All in all, when I transformed(?) and put back my hair, I would look like one would imagine a human absol, so that I could go in a partner look with Kyoyhoa to the gym. While I was still unsure about the mega evolution, even though I found out how I could reduce the drawback when it ended, it seemed the only possible way to fulfill both my goals easily.

Of course, I would use a different name. I would be 'Seto', and Kyo would be Nakashima.

Got that names from a name generator online.

For my birthday, I wished for tickets for the gym battle. I got two of them and told my parents I'd visit the battle with Lino. In truth, I gave my ticket Skylar and asked her to come with me, as I hoped she would learn something from it.

The amount pokémon needed to pay to watch depended sorely on their body size and influence on their surroundings. As such, Skylar and Fujita could come with us, watching.

Since except Hoseki all regularly vanished from the house to look around in the city after promising not to get into trouble, it wasn't looking weird when they left with us.

{I'm really interested in how you'll fight!} Fujita said, remembering what I told her when I gave her the ticket yesterday. Skylar nodded as well.

I chuckled but responded as Kyoyhoa.

{Well, there are a few surprises I prepared. I found out that I can stretch out the effect of the mega evolution, trading the power boost for consistency. It also hurts less. My body changes internally as well – when I get hit, I'll get hurt like a pokémon, not like a human, making me way more resilient. Additionally… Absol is usually unable to teleport, but 'foresight' works by bending space.}

I looked at the gym.

{Basically, I use the attack on myself, allowing me to teleport, but only in a short range. Useful in close-quarter combat and not much else.}

{Can you try to do something similar for me?}

Looking at Skylar, I couldn't help but ask.

"What do you mean?"

{Figuring out how I can be way more effective in battle!}

"I will, but first you have to get a bit stronger, okay?"

{'Kay!}

* * *

I quickly changed clothes, using a public toilet to do so. At the same time, I also used a bit of dye to already color my back hair white, that way it wouldn't look different when I'd actually transform.

Then, I tied my hair in a ponytail – well, most of it.

Looking in the mirror, I realized my eyes still were blue, but I didn't worry about that too much.

When I stepped out of the toilet, Lino looked me up and down for a moment, then said: "You weren't kidding. Looks good!"

"While that's most of it, there is still one thing missing. The proper eye color."

"Right, Absol has red eyes. How do you want to fix that? Contacts?"

"Nah, I'll just mega evolve."

"Wat."

That incomprehensive stare was exactly what I was hoping for.

"There's enough pokémon in me right now that I am able to trigger the mega evolution in reverse, with me holding an absolnite and Kyoyhoa wearing a key stone."

"And that does… what exactly?"

"For a moment, it transforms me into a pokémon in human form. I'll be able to use nearly all the attacks I'm able to use as a pokémon, except slash moves. While the moves are not using much energy, they are quite powerful, and I have a high control about them, making me as dangerous as a pokémon."

"While I won't force or ask you to transform in front of the arena, can you at least show me how it looks when you do?"

I nodded.

"That won't be a problem."

* * *

Eventually, we arrived at the arena.

"There's only one entrance…" Lino said, trailing off.

"Well, that's true. I, as the first to fight the gym leader, will sit on one of the for that reserved places right next to the arena. Now," I said, walking a bit in it until I was sure neither a camera nor someone else was looking at us.

My hand closed around the absolnite, while Kyoyhoa channeled her energy in the keystone. A glow started to form around both of them, and a purple light started to run along my skin, turning it white where it was visible.

My eyes changed as well, and were now a deep, crimson red.

"[What do you think?]" I asked, noting with satisfaction that my voice changed again.

"I definitively wouldn't recognize you. Good luck, though!"

I grinned.

"[Thanks! See you later at my house!]"

"Why not right after the fight?"

"[This is broadcasted, and people will want to talk with me, at least if I win. So, I think you should not talk to me right after this. The reason I'm in these clothes is to conceal my identity, and it looks good as well.]"

"I see. See you later, then!" he said, mentioning the pokémon to follow him and turning to the staircase for the middle and high ranks.

Before they got out of my sight, Fujita turned around, calling out to me:

{Good luck!}

"[Thanks!]"

After that, I continued walking forwards, eventually reaching the arena.

Why they built a colosseum here is escaping me, but it certainly gets one in a sense of battle.

* * *

After sitting around for around half an hour while the stadium filled with visitors – there weren't that many – the announcer eventually made himself known.

"Weeelcomeeee to the first fight of the day! One side of the field, we have our strong, electrizing manager and gym leader, Okubo Volt!"

The publicum cheered at those words.

"And on the other side, we have the psycho Seto, together with his absol Nakashima!"

Friendly applause.

"They seem to rock the partner look! Now, it's time for the dance! Seto has only one pokémon with him, Nakashima! Will it be enough to beat two of the strongest electric pokémon in the city? Now, get me some cheers! This voltage-loaded battle will hopefully – no, _surely_ shock us all with something completely new! That guy down there, folks, looks like one would imagine an absol in human form! Now, battlers, take your positions!"

At that, the arena lit up with noise again.

We both stood on opposite sides of the field, Kyoyhoa next to me, and a magneton hovering next to Okubo.

"Now, remember the rules! No healing of pokémon! Switching for both sides is okay! The challenger can maximal use three pokémon, Okubo as well only three! But if you come with two or one pokémon, he's allowed to use one more than you have! Everyone up to speed?"

"[I understand and accept the rules. Let's do this!]"

"I do as well. I'm hearing them thirty or more times a week!"

"PERFECT! Then, ready, set – GO!"

Since I knew I had to put on a performance, I commented what I told Kyoyhoa to do.

"[Show it the future, will you?]"

And around Kyoyhoa's horn, space started to distort.

"Whatever you're planning, we won't let you! Magneton! Shock her out of her preparations!"

The magnets on the pokémon started to turn, but to everyone's surprise, Nakashima did not start to move, but closed her eyes instead.

* * *

"Whoa! What's going on down there? Seems like it starts to get interesting already! Why aren't they dodging?"

Okubo looked with slight worry at the absol. While there was no proof that absol was indeed bringing bad luck, something clearly wasn't right here.

But at least he would get a free hit.

Discharging his electricity, the thundershock raced forwards, hitting… the ground?

In the last possible moment, the absol had moved to the side.

"How is that possible?! That absol just dodged a certain hit! Mister Seto, would you be so kind to elate us on what just happened?"

"[Gladly!]" he called out, and Okubo shivered upon hearing that voice. It sounded way more animalistic than a human voice had any right to sound.

"[You see, unlike most of her race, Nakashima has the special ability 'precision prediction'! She can not only tell if something bad will happen, but also what, when, where and how, and all that so precise that she can dodge it, even if it already seems too late! You can only hit her in two ways: be faster than her, or attack in such a way she can't go anywhere to dodge the attack! One such attack would be earthquake.]"

"Impressive! So, what will Okubo do to break though such defenses?"

"Magnezone! Magnet bombs, all over the place!"

The small, black balls started to fall all over the place, and covered enough ground to be unavoidable while staying in the arena.

As they exploded, they covered that much ground that an escape seemed impossible, but when the smoke cleared, there was no absol visible on the field.

Seto in turn smirked at him, pointing up.

And as he looked up, he saw the absol, just getting back down to the jump, it's rump slightly blackened.

"[Ah, a good idea! It even worked! Were you any slower, she could have seen when they exploded and jumped accordingly!]"

"So, there _is_ a way to beat that unfortune teller! Good luck, Okubo, you'll hopefully won't need it!" the cheery voice came out of the microphone, while Okubo still was thinking about his strategy.

"Magneton! Thundershock!" he eventually called out, and his opponent reacted surprisingly fast at that.

"[Me first!]"

Luckily, this time the absol was too slow, and took the full hit of the thundershock attack.

"[Not bad! Psycho hammer!]"

For a moment, he wondered what his opponent could mean. There were ice hammer and wood hammer attacks, but that such an attack existed was new for him.

The horn of the absol glowed pink, and a beam of energy arched out of it in a long bow, eventually speeding up way too fast for the magneton to dodge. It got hit in the side, and slidded through a good part of the arena.

"[Now we have reached the future! Show him what you stored!]"

Huh?

In the next moment, pink balls of psionic energy appeared all around magneton, hitting him. They were such strong hits that the magneton had trouble holding together.

"[Normal future sight! You're vulnerable for the long time it takes to set it up, but you gain one of the strongest psycho-attacks in return!]" his opponent called out, before ordering Nakashima to come back to his side of the arena.

While both pokémon had taken some damage already, his magneton was worse off. Another hit like this would be the end, so he had to stop any attempt from persuading him to move around.

"Magneton! Stay where you are, if you run into another such attack, you're done for! And respond to that with Thunder!"

The magneton charged for a moment, then the lightning rushed forward, but Nakashima did not move.

She took damage, but the lightning continued behind her although having hit her.

"What was that? Why did that pokémon not dodge? Maybe another comment from our fighters?"

"[Well, that attack was impossible to dodge, and she knew it! As such, she stayed where she was, as thunder, unlike thundershock, can lose up to eighty percent of its strength if it is not hitting properly. As such, she stood there, as it would have meant less damage than moving – because by standing steadily on the ground, most of the energy simply dispensed before it could do damage.]"

He then grinned.

"[Additionally, not moving means that she can charge her powers again!]"

"Magneton! Dodge to the right!" Okubo called, seeing the attack form.

The magneton managed to evade the brunt of the attack, but still got hit.

"Go for another bomb round!"

This time, the absol dodged the mines, then brought her horn down on the connection between two of the magnemite making up the magneton. He winced, that was certainly a critical hit, and magneton was in a bad positon. However, being this close also meant the next attack would hit.

"Take her out!"

The magneton nodded, and just a moment, it started to glow white before an explosion of energy threw the absol back. It was burnt, but not severely, but that last attack took all the energy left out of the magneton.

"You did good. Return."

"Our challenger is still standing! Respect! Usually such an explosion knocks a pokémon out of the fight! Are there any more shocking things waiting for us here today?"

"Manectric! It's your turn!"

"Very well! Let's start this by charming your opponent!"

* * *

I grinned. That attack would cause any pokémon of the other gender to fall in love, causing status drops in attack and precision.

"That won't work on us! Brace yourself!"

Luckily, I was right. Since I was still Kyoyhoa as well, I could resist the attack.

"Flamethrower!"

This time, I would succeed with me first. When I called out to Kyo to execute the attack, the Manectric started to glow blue already.

Kyoyhoa opened her mouth, and an enormous burst of flame shot forwards, the manectric barely escaping thanks to its speed.

In turn, it also breathed fire on her, unluckily covering such a wide area that it was impossible to evade completely.

With all the scratches and scorch marks, I felt it was time for the main event.

"[Time to spice things up! Nakashima! Return!]"

"Oh? Has our challenger more than one pokémon on him? The absol is stepping out of the ring! What will we see now? He certainly has no pokéball in his hand… what is that?! He himself is entering the arena?!"

"[I have one _pokémon_ with me, that was true. However, nothing is prohibiting me from entering the fight myself.]"

"You know you do that on your own risk, and you know you have no chance, right?"

"[You really think that?]" I started to laugh.

"What's so funny?"

A blade of psionic energy appeared in my hand.

"[You always think pokémon are the only ones that can fight!]"

"But can you land a hit? Manectric, take him out, but don't come too close or use too much power!" Okubo ordered, pointing at me.

"That isn't looking good for our challenger! Or does he have distance attacks? Wait – where did he go?!"

"[Too slow!]" I called, having appeared behind the pokémon and having brought down my sword on him.

He skidded through the arena, but I in turn also felt a static shock.

Luckily, it didn't paralyze me.

"[Future sight can also be used as doorway if you know how. Now, stand up and fight! I am able to beat most pokémon in hand-to hand combat, so _don't_ call me fragile!]"

"That's a challenge! And the clothes aren't just for show, right? You also have the powers of an absol! Impressive! I'm paralyzed! Never before has there been such a thing! How will this fight end?"

"THUNDER!"

"[Protection.]"

The shock got deflected mostly, but since I used the normal protection move, part of the charge also had moved behind me.

"[There's still a future sight lying around here…]" I said, grabbing the energy stored in the air with my power. A thin, concentrated beam of energy jolted forwards, knocking the manectric sideways again.

"Roar!"

"[That supposed to do what, exactly?]" I asked, knowing that although it looked slightly different for me now there was no actual change in power.

"Crap… he's still a human. Burn him away, then!"

Around the manetric, orange energy appeared. In return, I wove a net of invisible psionic energy in the air before me, intending on catching the flames. Since I still had time, I prepared another future jump in case I'd need to teleport quickly out of the way.

When the flames surged forwards, I used the net to stop them, then threw them back. The manetric did try to dodge, but it wasn't able to escape the flames.

{You can't just reflect the flames!}

"[Didn't, I caught them before I did,]" I responded, but not loud enough for anyone to hear me, bringing down the sword and causing a short burst of energy to race forwards, missing him by a few centimeters.

"He never attacks psychically! Bite him!"

The manectric shot forwards, and I collected all the energy I could in my hand. The manetric bit me, causing a good chunk of damage and electric damage, but it was now so near it had nowhere to go.

"[Game over,]" I said, releasing the energy.

A white, incredible bright burst of energy appeared, and a small explosion was heard. When the smoke cleared, the manetric was lying on the ground, defeated.

I smirked.

"[You see, false information or impressions can get useful effects. I can fight in close combat, but I prefer to use ranged attacks. Anyways, will you use two or three pokémon?]"

"Oh? He even asks! Hey! Guys! Do you want the two fight another of the strongest electric pokémon in the city! Just cheer right – now!" the announcer called, and the stadium nearly exploded with noise.

"Guess you count as a pokémon! Pikachu! Your turn!"

"[A small pokémon, interesting. I won't hit it that good with precision attacks.]"

"Is that so? Then stay at a distance, and use light shield, after that use thundershock to attack!"

I stayed at the distance and waited for my power to return. The attack before took a lot out of me.

Eventually though, I could hear the cackling of static energy, and I started to feel that I'd get hit in a moment. So, I channeled a bit of energy in my body, then jumped sideways, escaping the attack.

"What? Oh, not again, try quick attack!"

I decided to once again take the hit, and instead swung my arm forwards to the point I knew the attack would hit. However, the pikachu changed his course in the last moment, hitting me in the side instead of the chest, then used that opening to bring down another thundershock on me.

"[No matter if that was planned or not, you got me good. That managed to fool my senses. I believe I'll switch again,]" I said, stepping back.

"What is he doing? He can still stay in the fight! And Nakashima looks not that good, so what is he planning?"

* * *

The absol stepped in the arena, then a small light ran along its horn. Most of the wounds and scorch marks vanished, then it fell down, asleep.

"[Rest.]" Okubo's opponent said, and he was wondering what that was supposed to do, leaving his opponent wide open.

"Thunder!" he ordered, and the attack connected without a problem.

"Again!" he called out, but this time the attack hit a protection shield. Looking at Seto, he realized that the human wasn't the one responsible for that move. Instead, the absol was looking at him, with tired, but determined eyes.

"[Surprised? Nakashima is able to wake up nearly instantly, reducing the drawback of the move 'Rest' to nearly nothing!]"

"Incredible! Just as I thought we wouldn't see anything new anymore! How did you do that anyways?"

"Iron tail!"

"[Me first! Well, that sense of dread isn't just away when you're sleeping, so she forces herself to wake up when she feels it when asleep. You should have used the time to renew your light shield or something, but when you attack, she'll wake up near instantly.]"

The pokémon were currently trying to hit each other with different, small attacks.

"[Just bite 'em!]" his opponent called, and the absol charged forwards.

"Use quick attack to dodge!"

The absol hit nothing, and then got hit in the side a moment later.

A moment later, a sound remembering one of glass was heard, and a pink flash threw the pikachu sideways.

"[Huh. Completely forgot that was still there,]" Seto commented, indicating that it was a future sight attack that wasn't used yet.

"You still okay?"

His pikachu nodded.

"Then shock him!"

As soon as the sphere of electricity started to expand, Seto cursed for a second, then his absol was hit by it.

"Use the time you brought yourself! Light shield again!"

"[Slam him.]"

Okubo couldn't help but wonder what his opponent meant with that comment. Did absol knew body-check or something?

"Jump over her!" he called, but the absol seemed to realize his plan, and she jumped as well, hitting the pikachu in the air and bringing it down under a paw.

Her horn started to glow white, and while the pikachu tried to escape with his attacks and Nakashima took quite an amount of damage, eventually the energy arched down, knocking out the pikachu.

"[Worth it!]" his opponent called out, probably meaning the damage taken to connect the attack.

He grinned.

"Very good! I haven't had a fight like that in years! Every moment something unexpected! Not knowing if you're winning or losing! New tactics! And an impressive new use of your attacks and abilities! You more than earned the dynamo badge!" he called out, recalling his pokémon.

I grinned.

"[Thank you as well! You were good at adapting to our abilities, as well!]"

* * *

Fully healed, we both now were in the office of the gym leader.

"Well, I believe you need this, as well," he said, giving me a case for the badges. I saw that it had place for fourty-eight badges, in a six by eight pattern.

"[Why is there that much space?]"

"Well, each type has three gyms here, except fighting and normal. You need sixteen badges, one of each the other types, of those eight have to be from the normal gyms and two of the strongest type of gym, maybe you've heard that somewhere."

I nodded.

"And then there are those who want to beat all gyms. That case here is uniform as well, so you can't tell if someone is going for the league, the gyms, or both.""[Thank you. May I ask which gym is the nearest from here?]"

"The specter-gym is a town over. It's to the south, near the pokémon ranger area."

I made a mental note to visit that gym when I was visiting Vex the next time.

"Ah, right! I nearly forgot! You get one to five of those coins when you beat a pokémon gym. One to four depending on the difficulty, one less for each time you already beat the gym, and after that one extra when you had an outstanding performance," he said while handing me four weird looking, golden coins.

I looked at one.

"[What are they for?]"

"You can use them in pokemarkts to order rare and valuable items. For example, a mega stone."

"[Or ethernal ice?]"

"Well, yes. Those coins can be traded for nearly everything. There are two more things. First, I'll need your signature on this," he said, handing me a list where in the last line my (taken) name was already standing.

Funnily enough, I was listed as 'pokehuman'. I took the pen and jotted down my wrong name in a similar manner I'd use to sign with my normal name.

"[And the other thing?]"

"Manectric wanted to talk with Nakashima," he said, pointing to the pokémon waiting next to him.

I shrugged.

"[No problem, but I really should get going.]"

Placing another, changed future sight for the purpose of teleportation on Nakashima, holding the other end to myself, I turned to the door, looking back at Okubo.

"[Maybe you'll see us again, though.]"

"Time will tell, I guess. Back exit?"

Remembering what I suspected about the people – and seeing the huge crowd – I nodded.


	14. Act 3 Chapter 2

**Edit(ed) by: Andrizzi**

* * *

{So, what did you want?} I asked, looking at the blue and yellow pokémon.

{Well, I wanted to talk with you about Seto.}

Right… they didn't know we were the same, and I felt like it would be a good idea to hide this peculiar fact.

{Hmm?}

{While I haven't seen all of your fight, I looked at the recordings while you were still healing. Are you forced to do anything?}

I blinked, once, then again.

{What in the world gave you that idea?}

{How he ordered you to defeat Pikachu.}

Yeeeah… that could be interpreted badly. I didn't saw how he would get to that conclusion, though, and I didn't think that would be the real reason.

I carefully used a small bit of my powers to read his emotions, but there was nothing unexpected. As such, I decided to answer truthfully-ish.

{Not really. He and I think alike, and I wouldn't do it if I wouldn't want to. And after that fight I think I can really use some time outside.}

{There's a great park nearby!} he exclaimed, looking oddly happy for some reason.

I looked up.

{Oh? Where would that be?}

* * *

{You were right,} I said upon seeing the wonderful park.

{Why did I never find this place?}

{It is intentionally hidden, so that only those who know of it can find it. A perfect resting place, and a few guards watch over it.}

{Human or pokémon?} I asked, remembering how _bad_ humans were at fighting humans.

{Pokémon, humans don't really have a chance against us.}

He looked around for a while, then spotted a berry bush with a berry on it I've never seen.

{Those are really good!} he exclaimed, pointing at one of them.

After biting in one, I was pleasantly surprised by the flavor – and surprised didn't even came close.

{That tastes like meat…} I realized, only now noticing how much I, as a canine, craved meat.

{Well, the berry tastes like the thing you'd love most to eat. Mine taste like a berry I only tasted once when I was young, but I remembered the taste forever,} he explained, chewing on another berry he got from the bush.

Reaching to take another one, he placed a (comparably small) paw on mine.

{Don't eat them all. You should leave them for others, and I have only seen this type of berry bush once.}

Realizing what I was about to do, I pulled my paw back.

{Sorry, I lost myself.}

{Don't worry about it.}

He then smiled.

{There is also a lovely, although small pond nearby. Want to see it?}

I thought about it for a moment.

{Sure, why not. Lead the way!}

* * *

I was sitting in my room, looking at the small bag with my white clothes. I put it away on a shelf, in a small box.

Since the fight took incredibly much energy out of me, I was lethargic for a few days now. I of course was eating berries, as I knew they helped regenerating energy, but I still felt very exhausted and tired.

I took the mega stone in my hand, pondering about it. Maybe I should eventually tell the professor about my transformation.

Wait. Did I channel mystic energy while helping myself up? I think I did, back then, I couldn't really hold it all back to use it for myself, and since I wasn't needing it, I allowed it to flow freely.

I took out a pen and an empty page of paper, then started writing.

'_Pokehumans, entry one._

_Pokehumans are humans that adapted colors and part of the powers of a pokémon. They are able to fight _with _the same powers as a pokémon, but they have not as high of a resistance to attacks as pokémon do. The powers they have are nearly identical than of the pokémon they are from, but weaker._

_It is possible to create pokéhumans, but I will not write down how to do so yet. What I will tell is that like all big discoveries it was made on accident._

_The person will look like someone cosplaying as a specific pokémon, as even the eye color and hair color shift. That effect can be further enhanced by wearing fitting clothes, as I first demonstrated in my fight at the dynamo-arena in Caerdydd._

_Additionally, I think that when a pokémon is channeling power in a human, be it through a key stone or some other means, they become able to fight like a pokémon. Since my bond with my absol is one that cannot be replicated in any way (that I know of), I cannot say this with certainty._

_Any further information will be published in a similar fashion than this one, distributed to the newspaper in the Astral region, and later to those in other regions._

_-Seto.'_

After I put the paper sheet away, I took my clothes and walked straight to the nearest pokemarkt. There was something I think could become useful, but I was sure I'd forget getting it wouldn't I do it now.

* * *

Lying under the tree and looking down on the smaller pokémon playing there, I felt completely at peace. Luckily, only one half of me was tired, since a pokémon was built for battle, and back on it's feet fast after that again.

Looking at Imai – which was the manectrics' name – I realized that that feeling came probably from him. I smiled for a moment, then looked away as I could feel a blush started forming on my cheeks.

{It's nice, isn't it?}

I nodded.

{Yes. I would never have imagined that such beauty could exist this close to such a big town. This is something I would not think to be real, were it told to me.}

{Well, I quite liked our time together. Uh…} he said, trailing off. He blushed heavily, and I could tell there was something he wanted to know.

{What do you desire to know?} I asked, already guessing that 'how was it for you' _wasn't _the question he was thinking about. Realizing he wasn't going to say anything soon, I gave him a small push with my powers.

{How are you raised?} he then blurted out, causing me to blink in surprise.

{Pardon?}

{Uhhh… how do you court?}

Realizing what he meant, I blushed as well, but answered his question.

{Well… not like there are any rules. Like humans, I guess? You meet someone you like and want to win them over by showing them who you are, going out with them?}

{Well, that makes things a bit easier. I quite like you, Nakashima, and I hope you'll visit me again. I'm only required to stay with my trainer for battles until noon, so you can visit me anytime in the afternoon. I hope I'll see you again,} he said, still blushing and giving me a courtesy bow before running off.

I smiled. Maybe I'd honor him.

* * *

"Well, it's an odd request, but I can do it. What would you need that for, anyways?"

"Simply for a presence online. I have a normal live under a different name, after all," I replied, trying to sound like I did back in the arena. Unluckily, without the transformation that was nearly impossible, and I wasn't daring enough to find out what would happen were I to transform in this state of mine.

"Well, for that, I need a coin and 20.000 poké."

Handing him the coin and the money, I then thought about what I needed to do next.

Remembering I still needed a mailbox, I made my way to the post.

* * *

After a long day, I eventually fell down on the bed, Kyoyhoa already having returned without use of her one-time teleport earlier. I've eaten dinner with my parents and just wanted to sleep for a week straight.

Being _way_ too tired to care, I pulled Kyoyhoa close, getting some much needed shut eye.

When Kyoyhoa touched the mega stone I wore the entire day, an arc of energy jumped from the stone to the key stone, causing it to glow an eerie, blue light.

I thought nothing about it and got to sleep, but the next morning would show me what happened in all clarity.

* * *

Waking up, I found that I had changed in my sleep. But this time not as Adam, but as Kyo.

Her body shifted remarkably, turning into something similar to a human. Her face became nearly human, but the horn stayed atop her head and her hair turned completely white, unlike mine.

The only part of her body where skin was visible was her face, which was colored a dark, ebony color. Her paws turned into something between paws and hands, retaining the claws, but gaining the mobility of human fingers. A thumb did not form, though. While that meant a loss in flexibility, it still allowed for way easier handling of tools.

The tail also became more like a real tail, not being as hard as it was before.

"{Great,}" I commented, both because I was really annoyed, and because I wanted to see if my voice box changed in any way.

It seemed that the transformation changed my voice in a similar way than it changed my other body, making my voice closer to an equilibrium state between human and pokémon voice. As far as I could see it, my voice was now understandable by humans, although it would still sound a bit animalistic.

After that, I realized I _technically_ had a girl in my bed right now, but… she wasn't _naked_.

And even if – after living as Kyo for half a year, I had a pretty _high_ tolerance developed for that, as I saw and lived on both sides of the spectrum. I wouldn't be aroused without a good reason – and not by myself, anyways.

Looking down on myself, I realized that this also caused me to shift as well, now being colored white. Pushing back the energy I found within myself in the mega-stone, but not touching Kyoyhoa with it again, I managed to nearly fully reverse the transformation. The only thing staying were the white lines on the back of my right hand, tracing my bones.

I then tried pulling on this energy, instead of pushing it to me over Kyoyhoa.

My bones shifted, but it was quite painful for me to do so. Interestingly enough, it forced me into a male copy of Kyoyhoa, also giving me the quite different voice of a pokémon-human hybrid.

Then, I started pulling and pouring more and more energy into Adam. The chances _shifted_, Kyoyhoa coming closer and closer to becoming a human, while I became more and more like an absol.

It was disconnecting, to say the least. It felt weird to have a human, female body, but being a male pokémon didn't changed much from being a female. Since I was uncomfortable, I pushed the energies back, creating the equilibrium state again, then toppling it again. I did not think it was a good idea to run around anthromorph.

Only after I did all that, I realized that this time, I did not grow tired from that transformation at all. Unluckily, there was no way to tell if it was because I got more stamina regarding this ability, or if just transforming took no energy out of me.

Though…

Taking the keystone, I started channeling energy through it as Kyoyhoa, and it had the effect I expected. Since a keystone was usually worn by a human, it had also the structure of a human in it. I once again changed in the equilibrium state between being pokémon and human, but only with Kyoyhoa.

I grinned. That was giving me ideas.

* * *

"Hey, where is Kyoyhoa?"

"She left earlier today for a tailor. She left me a note for that, though."

"Why would she need clothes?" mom wondered, having no idea what I just had done.

"Well…" I started, trailing off, giving the 'pure innocence' look to her.

So, she of course knew something was up.

"What. Did. You. Do?"

"I? Nothing. Have you seen the battle I visited?"

"Heard about it in the news. There was that Seto guy who turned in a pokémon, right?"

I nodded.

"Turns out, that effect can be reversed. I found out about that this morning."

"{Adam! I'm back!}" a clearly female voice was heard from outside. Were one to listen carefully, they could hear that it was _not_ created by a human.

What came in was a nearly human looking woman, looking around twenty years old. She had red eyes and white hair through which ran a black stripe. He fingernail were of a black color, but they were of that color naturally.

The only thing that made it clear she was not human were her still present tail and horn, both for some reason solid again.

After I noticed that, I simply assumed that the less characteristics of a race a being has, the more pronounced they become, hence why I started turning white after only having a fraction of the powers Kyoyhoa wields.

Her clothes were partially similar, partially different to what Seto wore. She had a black lace up top which stopped above her belly and a white, light jacket with a collar of fake, white fur.

She also wore grey stockings below white shorts with a black belt. The belts on the shorts and jacket were the only place where was any color apart from her skin and eyes, as they had golden ornaments on them.

As soon as my father saw her, he did a spit-take, his eyes bulging out.

"_That's _Kyoyhoa?!" he asked, looking at me with wide eyes.

"Jep. Although…" I trailed off, before turning to Kyo.

"Say, didn't you want to visit professor Kalopanax and Imai?"

"{Yeah, I did. But I forgot the stones here, you know?}"

I groaned.

"You know perfectly well where they are, so just get them. And do me a favor and tell Hoseki, Fujita, Skylar, Imai and Lino about this, okay?"

She nodded.

"{Will do. Anything else?}"

"You are going through the market, are you not? Take a few coins with you and buy a few cheri berries. We're also starting to run out of leppa and oran berries, so buy a net of them as well, okay?"

"{Kay! See you later!}" she cheerfully replied, skidding out of the room.

Dad looked at me with squinted eyes and an unreadable look on his face.

"You know as well as I do that poképhilia is not outlawed here. Don't even think about it, mister!"

"She already has a friend," I responded, and a cry was heard from the outside.

"{HOW DO YOU EVEN KNOW THAT?!}"

"Still, I'm watching you. Uh – how did she even turn?"

"Key stone. Seems like pokémon are able to use their energies to change them in anthromorph beings by pushing said energy in a keystone. Maybe it's something about them we don't know yet?"

* * *

After shouting out that, I of course got noticed by the pokémon in our yard.

{Kyo, why are you that loud?}

Fujita poked up her head.

Whatever she wanted to ask got caught in her throat as she looked at me.

{Hey, don't just freeze there!} Skylar complained, then noticing me.

She blinked only once.

{Well… this is new. How did you do _that_?} she asked, looking me up and down.

"{Key stones…}" I responded, lifting Fujita up.

{Kyo? Is that really you?}

"{Well, yes. I'm going into town, are you coming with me?}"

{Are you going to show me the market?}

"{Why not, I have to go there anyways. Skylar, do you want to come?}"

{Nah, I'll pass. I'm training with Hoseki.}

I nodded, then started walking away.

* * *

I did not think this through.

"{Snap out of it. You _know_ who and what I am, right?}" I chided Lino, having visited him before going to the professor.

"Yeah, but… it's so hard to remember!" he said, blushing slightly.

I gave him the 'insane' look with my eyes glowing slightly, and he turned white for a second.

"Geez, don't scare me like that!"

"{But it helped, right?}"

"Yeah… it did. Why did you visit me first, though?"

I lowered my voice so that it couldn't be heard.

"{Well, _both_ humans and pokémon tried hitting on me. If I have you with me, they'll think you're in some way connected to me and won't be that obvious about it.}"

"Really?" he deadpanned.

I croaked an eyebrow.

"{You try turning into a woman, then tell me that again.}"

"I'll pass."

{I'll try!}

I shrugged, then lit up my horn to teleport us across a busy street. While I had by no means a useful range for travel, it was still enough to be useful in battle and to cross problematic terrain.

"{Unluckily, this, like many things will not become aviable to the public that easily. I will inform the professor about this though, hence why we are on our way to him. Hopefully he will be able to enable at least pokémon to do this, though.}"

Then, I caught wind of a scent I could not help but remember.

As such, I turned away from it, wanting _nothing_ to do with that idiot.

I scowled when it started to follow us a minute later.

Pulling out a 1000-poke coin from my pocket, I gave it Lino and pointed to a Café a bit ahead of our position.

"{Get a table from where you can see the street further ahead,}" I ordered, my no-nonsense demeanor telling Lino something was up. He did not ask what was happening and simply did as I told him. Then, I ordered Fujita to stay with him as well. After that, I walked forward until I was near a crossing but still visible from where Lino was, waiting for what was surely to happen.


	15. Act 3 Chapter 3

**Edit(ed) by: Andrizzi**

* * *

"Beware! Team Rocket is here!"

Blah blah cue song, blah blah cue introductions.

"Now, you can either come with us or try to fight. Our boss is very interested in humanoid pokémon."

"{How do you know you can take me?}"

"A birdie told us that the human form is way weaker than the pokémon form."

Uhhh…

Remembering the article I put online as Seto earlier, I chuckled, then laughed.

"You have no reason to laugh! Hypno, poison her!"

Said pokémon got released from its pokéball and fired something dark at me. Trying to deceive them, I coated myself with protect, hoping to make it look as if I was hit.

Then I charged at the hypno, channeling all my energy into my arm while doing so, and then some. This caused a strong pain, but it also gave me enormous strength for a short moment, and when the attack connected, the hypno got sent flying in a wall on the opposite side of the street, knocked out instantly.

"Scyther!" "Skarmony!"

Both pokémon got ordered to attack me, and I wasn't sure which one I deemed more dangerous but settled on the Scyther as it was more dangerous, it being bug-type.

I jumped, evading the attack of the skarmony, then slammed down on the scyther, having read up on them having a weak spot in the back after the fight in the park a while ago.

Since then, I tried learning flamethrower, as I knew Absol could learn that attack. I could only produce a few embers at the moment, but it got a nice hit when I shot them right after punching the scythor in the back at the same spot, causing its wings to lock up in pain.

I was able to levitate myself, so I did that, making the skarmony the only current threat.

Of course, I kept as much energy in the shield around my body, since I wasn't ready to take my chances with them.

It charged at me, wings aglow. Probably a steel attack.

Jumping, I propelled myself forwards at the scarmony, bringing down my arm alit with psychic energy, causing its attack to miss as I was above it and causing a bit damage to it as well.

Unluckily, in my current form, I probably could not do much against it.

Then, I realized I had the beginnings of a fire attack. As such, when the scarmony charged the next time, my hand flashed red and the scarmony flinched away, not realizing that was all I could do.

That gave me an opening, which I used to throw the scarmony down into the scythor, taking the latter one fully out of the fight.

"Hitmonlee!"

CRAP!

A steel type was a problem, but with a _jumping_ fighting-type pokémon, I had a big problem at my hands right now.

Wait. Can I teleport _other_ pokémon around?

I charged up my teleport, but then channeled all the energy into the hitmonlee as it was about to jump. I switched places with it, the hitmonlee taking the hit from the scarmony.

Using that time window, I crashed down one of the two guys that were accompanying the guy that attacked me earlier using a levitating brick while using my other hand to create a shield, stopping the net one just tried throwing at me.

A moment later, I was hit _hard_ from the side, skidding a big deal to the side. The hitmonlee was even faster than I thought, having landed an attack against me.

Were it not for the shield and my resilience, it would have left a nasty wound, but that way I just got a bruise.

I threw the hitmonlee back, but I did not know where the scarmony was, so I stayed on guard. Using the time I had though, I placed a future sight attack on the hitmonlee, hopefully knocking it out.

{THUNDER!}

And above me, the sky lit up.

The scarmony hit the ground next to me, and when I turned around, I could see Imai, electricity still running along his body.

Having another window of opportunity, I crashed the next grunt in the wall, only leaving their leader in a position being able to battle. Imai seemingly understood my plan and defended against the hitmonlee.

"{Did I not warn you before there are fates worse than death? That I would go after you?}"

I snarled.

"{_THAT_ did it. I _will_ end your life in this world!}" I screamed, channeling a great amount of pure power into him, causing him to fall unconscious after just a moment.

"{Hey! You! That pidgey over there! Come here!}" I called out to the bird sitting on a nearby lamp, and it surprisingly enough followed my command.

Taking out the key stone, I pressed it to the guys' forehead, then touched the pidgey with my other hand.

* * *

The police officer arrived, only to witness the end of the fight and hearing the exclamation of the pokémon in human form.

"{…_will_ end your life in this world! Hey! You! That pidgey over there! Come here!}"

The hands of the female started to glow white, and the Rocket grunt fell down.

After that, the pokémon placed a blue stone on his head, and seeing this, she raised their gun to shoot down the white clothed pokémon.

However, before she could press the trigger, she got shocked by the nearby manectric, causing her to drop her gun.

"Let me through! You can't do that!"

The posture of the manectric indicated that it very well could.

Having lived with similar intelligent pokémon once, she tried to understand what it meant, and to do it fast.

"You won't let me through."

A nod.

"You are protecting her."

Another nod, but slightly slower.

"Do you intend to keep me from doing my job?"

A shake of the head.

"Do you protect me?"

After she asked that, he seemed to think about that for a moment, then shook his head.

"I can't allow her to kill him, he still has to answer for his crimes."

He raised a brow.

"This will be punishment enough?"

A shrug.

"She won't kill him?" she asked, only guessing now.

After that, the manectric shrugged and moved to the side. Now intrigued, she got closer, watching what the Absol was doing, knowing she would be stopped would she try anything.

* * *

Looking at the individual energies of the human and the pidgey, I eventually found what I was searching for. Their minds.

It was in this part of the energy that their consciousness was stored, and it was what I would never change.

The rest though… it was fair game.

Scanning the inner energies of the pidgey, I eventually found what I was searching for. Using the key stone as a focus, I forced the energy inside him to approach that of the pidgey, and he slowly started to change in color, assuming the form of a pidgey himself.

Then, to my surprise and shock, the key stone started turning ash grey. It seemed like it was undamaged, but it seemed like it would be unusable for the foreseeable future. Unluckily, the more power I pushed behind that to supplement the transformation, the more pain I experienced.

It was the exact same pain I had after turning back as Adam after trying to use the mega evolution for the first time. Eventually, I let go as he had finished transforming, but in the same second, a loud cracking sound was heard, and I realized that my horn had now a small crack in it at its base.

Something similar had happened to me once. My psychic powers would be unusable for the next few days to weeks, depending on the usefulness of the medicine I had access to.

After pushing a small bit of energy in my hand, though, I found I could still transform, although painfully slow. As far as I saw it, the key stone was only affected by it because I changed its target completely instead of simply changing how I was looking, and my horn broke as I forced way too much energy in way too less time through it.

Luckily, I drew no blood.

* * *

The humanoid absol now was walking to her, holding the transformed human in one hand.

She gave the pidgey to her, of which she noted had fainted.

"{That… is probably… a permanent transformation,}" she said, using a nearby wall to hold on.

"Well…" she started, not sure how she should go about it.

"{It can… probably reversed. Ask… a psychic pokémon. Use a key stone,}" she said, before pausing again.

Seemingly having enough energy to continue talking normal, she explained shortly what she had done.

"{I used the pidgey as template, and the key stone as a catalyst. If a psychic pokémon has a key stone and is strong enough, it should be able to reverse this.}"

She winced, then looked up at her horn.

"{I'm in no condition to do that, though.}"

Before she could continue though, the manectric made itself known, causing the absol to rush to his side.

{Mane-}

Before he could continue, she clamped his muzzle shut.

"{Shh! Don't go blabbing those things out like that!}"

Ignoring that, she looked down at the pidgey.

"Whatever. I'll take a coffee, then bring him to the police station," she said, using an empty pokéball to capture it.

* * *

Now, after the police officer left, we all were sitting in the café, each of us having something they either wanted or needed.

In my case, Lino gave me a potion, and while it hurt, I knew it had a healing effect on the horn. I ordered a hot chocolate, though.

"{After that fiasco I have neither the energy nor the desire to still visit the professor.}"

"You look beat," Lino said, agreeing.

Imai then spoke up.

{How did this happen, anyways?}

I sighed.

"{They probably got the order to capture me. Team Rocket still exists, as they never find those responsible.}"

"Well, did you not promise them to destroy them were that to happen again?"

"{Which is something I'll start on doing. After I have healed of course, and Adam is also out of the equation. We both _can_ fight as of now, but it would be by no means recommended.}"

{I guess we're not going to the market then…} Fujita said, her head hanging down.

"{Not today at least, I don't think I could handle it. Sorry.}"

After that, I leaned over to Lino, whispering to him:

"{He probably has already guessed that I'm the one he fought in the arena, but do you think I should tell him about my other 'condition'?}"

Lino glanced at the manectric for a second, then nodded.

"Yes. You should come clear with him."

I nodded, that was about what I expected from him. He wasn't wrong though – I should be truthful with Imai.

After a few more minutes, I stood up, already having paid.

"{Well, I think it's time to go. Imai, do you want to come with us for a while?}"

He nodded.

{There are still a few things I have to ask you.}

"{I think I already know the question,}" I responded, putting my jacket back on.

"{Doesn't means they are what I think you should be asking, but fire away anyways.}"

{Well…} he said, already out of the café and waiting for us.

{Then, please tell me: why do you…}


	16. Act 3 Chapter 4

**Edit(ed) by: Andrizzi**

* * *

{…look like a human?}

"{That one is actually answered quite easily. You see, my 'trainer', quote unquote, is in the possession of an absolnite, and he had it with him for a while. Yesterday evening, some sort of spark jumped from it to the key stone I have with me right now, but I though nothing about it. When I woke up the next morning, I discovered that I turned in a human nearly fully but found out quickly that it is possible to change between human and pokémon form. Side note: Clothes not included.}"

{Is a mega stone necessary for that?}

"{Probably not. Why? Want to have fingers as well?}" I asked in a teasing tone.

{No,} he responded, not having reacted to that in any way.

After that, he though a moment on how to formulate his next question, and I took the time to feel along my horn with my right hand.

Luckily, there were no other injuries beside the one crack near the base.

{You were the absol I showed the park, right?}

I nodded.

{Why do you not want people recognize you?}

"{Well, only a few know of my other identity. While I do trust you, I don't really want that it becomes known. You'll see why soon enough, though.}"

* * *

We eventually arrived at my house, and I opened the door, going straight to the kitchen, picking up a few leppa and oran berries for myself. After that, I came down as Adam, nodding to Imai before making myself a tea.

{Correct me if I'm mistaken, but didn't he look fairly differently in the arena?}

"{And now you see why I wanted to keep this, together with all the other weird things surrounding us, secret.}"

{Yeah… I remember someone talking about a human being able to fight with pokémon and win a while ago. Was somewhere near the earlier regions. Kanto, maybe?}

"{I'm not sure. I heard about it too, but that's about it. The problem here is that he simply looked to them like a powerful psyche, but usually he looks like this. If it becomes known that it's possible to switch between pokémon and human as easily as it is, they will search us out.}"

I looked down at my hands, and before I continued, I ate another leppa berry.

"{Luckily, I can explain this as an effect of the key stone, which is kind of true.}"

"But it isn't," I interjected as Adam, continuing the explanation.

"You see, the keystone is a catalysator. I was able to switch between this form and the pokéhuman form because of it, and similarly, Kyo here was able to turn into a human because the keystone kind of helped her with its structure."

Imai then looked at me.

{Then, why do you not stay in that form?} he asked, probably referring to my ability to turn into an absol.

"Two reasons. One: I do not want reporters and the like to barge in on my family or friends. As such, I use a different name and a different look while battling. Two: The drawback is quite painful, and while using the transformation on a lower level decreases the pain it causes, it still is a problem. I cannot _stay_ transformed."

{And she can?}

"{Probably. I found out it's a bit easier to transform if you're a pokémon than if you're a human, though, and turning back causes me no pain.}"

Luckily, Lino had gone home, so it was just pokémon here, and Adam.

As such, I saw no problem with undressing and simultaneously transforming in my anthromorph form.

Imai looked a bit weirdly at me, though.

"{What?}"

{Isn't that something 'taboo' for humans?}

I snorted.

"{As if any of you would care.}"

{True, but what about him?}

'Adam' was just drinking his tea, not even looking in my direction.

After putting my clothes in an ordered stack, I then fully reversed my transformation, becoming quadruped again.

{Don't see why I should be concerned.}

"Fujita, may you leave for a second?"

{Kay! I'll search Skylar, then!}

As soon as she left, Adam sat down, looking at the manectric opposite of him.

"You know that she comes with baggage, right?"

He tilted his head, then blushed a second later. I allowed myself a small smirk; seems like I was right after all.

Still not sure what to think about it.

{Wha-what do you mean?}

"Do you know what multiple personality disorder is?"

He shook his head.

"It's when a single person – or pokémon – has more than one consciousness, is more than one 'person' at the same time. However, the opposite case is nearly never observed. Do you know what it is called when multiple persons have the same consciousness?"

{No, not really. You mean…}

"Yep. I'm not sure if if's emergence, a swarm intelligence or simply a being having _more_ than one body, but in any case, you will have to deal with me as well. After all…" I said, leaning closer to him.

"{We are the same person.}"

I nearly shuddered hearing that two-toned speaking again. While I could stand a pokémon speaking the human tongue, this synchronization is just creepy, even for me.

Brings the point across, though.

"You may have realized that many things I do are to look like we are just a trainer with his pokémon."

{This is far more importantly to stay undiscovered than the fact that we are able to transform is.}

Having stood still for almost a minute, Imai jumped up, looking at us two, staring.

{WHAT?!}

He looked at us, then sat down again.

{Yeah… that makes sense. I have never seen such quick responses to commands before, but if you know what they'll be before they are even said, it's only expected.}

He groaned.

{I did _not_ need that image in my head, though.}

"What do you even mean?"

{You see, I thought about possible futures.}

Blushing strongly, he continued.

{And… I saw myself with Kyo more than just one time. With you, I guess. And when I realized you weren't kidding when you said you were the same, I in turn thought about that again, but this time, it was a disturbing though.}

I nodded.

"Understandable. While I think I should be truthful about this to those close to me, I also will keep my pokémon and human life separated from each other as much as possible."

{You mean I won't have to worry about that?}

I shook my head.

"No, but you have to worry about 'me', quote unquote. I will try to act as if we're separated – that includes acting protective."

{What do you mean?}

"Since my instincts as human and as pokémon are quite differently from each other, I can see and do things in one form I'm unable to do in the other. As such, while the part of me that's 'Kyoyhoa' wants to trust you, I, as 'Adam' find myself a bit worried about you, since I was that long together with her. Don't make a mistake though: Misstep, and I'll go after you," I said, eyes narrowed at him.

After I said that, he threw his head down on the table.

{And here I thought that would be easy…} he groaned. I needed to stifle a laugh.

* * *

Blinking, the manectric looked at the egg in front of him.

{Why do you have _this_ here?}

{The professor gave it to me. You see, this vulpix simply wasn't hatching, so I touched it with my mind. That seemed to have done the trick, as it started developing again.}

{I remember Okubo telling me about this problem,} Imai responded, looking at me.

{Maybe whatever happened to you was a lucky connection? Could this effect be reproduced?}

I grimaced.

{I don't think that is a good idea. You see, when I woke up in this form first, I thought I was dreaming, but then soon enough realized I was _not_. And I don't think it would be a good idea to give humanity the ability to gain another body, especially not since this would drastically raise the rates of pokémon fights and crime.}

{Maybe you can 'awake' those eggs so that they start developing again? As far as I see it, they end up all in this state.}

{Is an idea, but how do you want me to go over that? Additionally, with my horn in its current broken state I can't do anything.}

He now was staring me in the eyes.

{But you should! They are not linked to you directly, are they?}

I shook my head.

{I cannot feel myself inhabiting the body of the vulpix here, so no.}

{Then you should do it! Think about it! How _many_ eggs are like this?!}

{Too much,} I responded, then picked up the tablet with my paws.

After running energy carefully in them to reform them in something resembling hands, I looked up the rate of those eggs known from pokémon breeding.

{It's about half a tenth of a percent. That means, of two thousand eggs, one is in such a state – way too many for my liking. Multiply that number with the nearly two _hundred _billion pokémon alone in our region… there are, what? A few thousand per year, at least.}

{Well, I'll look if I can find information about something like that happening around here.}

{What do you plan?} I asked in return, looking up.

{If I find them, I'll tell you about it. I know where I can find you, after all. You _will_ help, or?}

Looking at him, I nodded.

{Yes, don't worry about that. If I can do the same I did with this egg, I will do it.}

He looked really relieved.

{That's good to hear. Before I go though, may you tell me how I can turn in a human, too?}

I blinked.

{Why?}

{Well, I do want to interact with them, to see how they react. I also want to see if it will help in battle.}

I nodded.

{It isn't that hard. You see, you only need a key stone…}


	17. Act 3 Chapter 5

**Edit(ed) by: Andrizzi**

* * *

It was around a week later when the egg hatched. Somehow, since I (usually) slept on a thick rug on the ground, I managed to coil myself around the egg, and as such got woken up when that started.

Adam simply left, intending on picking up a towel and a cheri berry, placing the towel below the egg and using a psychic knife to open the berry.

It took a while, but eventually a small crack appeared on the surface, then another and another. I smiled, the young one at least didn't need any persuasion to leave the egg.

After the egg broke so far that he could come out of the egg, I tried to remember what happened when I was in his position and started cleaning him. After that was done, I pulled him to myself, using my body warmth to conserve his.

* * *

I left Kyoyhoa and brought the eggshells to the professor. I wasn't sure if he had any use for them, but he seemed pleased with me for some reason.

After that, I got to the electric gym and saw that today was no battle scheduled for today. I rang, and eventually Okubo came out, raising an eyebrow upon seeing me.

FYI, I was as Adam there, not as Seto.

"You know that today's closed?"

"Yep. I wanted to speak to Imai, though. Do you know where he is?"

His face showed surprise upon realizing I knew the name of his manectric.

"No," he eventually answered, "he left earlier today."

As such, I turned to the park Ima showed me, hoping to find him there.

After passing one of the guards, I found him there, lying in the sun.

I walked over to him, then clapped my hands in front of his face. He shot up, electricity dancing along his body, but it vanished when he saw me.

{Why are you here?}

I smiled.

"I thought you would want to visit. Remember the egg? It hatched."

{Really? And why are you here? Is your other half missing me?}

I tried to deadpan but couldn't do as I was blushing slightly.

"I'll admit that she thought about that, yes."

With a wolfish grin, he strode away.

{Then what are you waiting for?}

Just what has my life become?

* * *

When dad tried to enter the room, I made my displeasure at such an action very clear, and after seeing me growling at him, he wisely chose to leave me alone.

The little one already got awake, so I pulled the cheri berry nearby closer, using what I already could use again of my psychic power to do so.

After I used the berry to feed him, I smiled upon remembering how I reacted in the exact same way to that sweet smell.

That would be his main drink/food for the next few days, after that I'd mix in some other berries. I got that recommendation online, as there was no vulpix or ninetales I could ask.

A little while after that, Adam and Imai returned, and both immediately came to our(?) room.

{That's the vulpix?}

"Are you stating the obvious today?"

{Yes?}

I chuckled.

"Question is which one of us would be considered the father figure."

{No idea.}

{Well, you know I originally was male,} I said as Kyoyhoa, not wanting my parents to hear that part of the conversation.

Imai caught on and laid down next to me, while Adam got down to breakfast.

He seemed to think about it for a moment.

{Well, I believe neither would be a good idea.}

{Why?}

He pawed at the ground for a second, then spoke his mind.

{Well… you were who cared for that egg, but since you and 'him' are the same person, I don't think it would be good if you were more than one parental figure. In the same way, I _never_ was here, and I also don't know you that well yet,} he responded, looking away.

I smiled, realizing he did this for the little one, not for his own benefit.

{Thank you.}

{What do you…} he started, but then I had already pulled him over with psychic and nuzzled him.

Beet red, he pulled away, not managing to say anything for more than a solid minute.

{Uh… what name did you pick for him?}

Well, _that_ was awkward. Ahem.

{Kitsune. It is a name used for nine-tailed foxes of older legends.}

{Isn't that a bit too generic?}

{Not really. Seems like nearly no one knows about that name anyways, so it isn't that common either.}

* * *

"Adam?"

"Yeah?" I asked, looking up from my bowl of cereal.

"I assume the egg you got from the professor hatched?"

Nodding, I said: "Yes. It's a vulpix, by the way."

He raised a bow.

"That's a fire pokémon, isn't it? How do you want to keep it from burning down anything?"

"Learning attacks takes time," I responded, continuing to eat my breakfast.

"You see, there is an energy every pokémon has. That energy is used to form attacks. However, when a pokémon is young, there is only very little of that energy there, and it cannot be accessed unless it's an emergency."

"Well, you know more than I do. But remember: You'll pay for any damages."

"Didn't you get a pokémon-insurance?"

"You still have to act responsible; it won't replace anything lost. It will only pay for the house."

I shrugged; he was right.

"Oh, and you remember that school starts next week, right?"

I slowly shook my head, cursing for overlooking such a detail.

Now I would need to split my attention between school and Kitsune…


	18. Act 4 Chapter A

**Edit(ed) by: Andrizzi**

**So, it has been a while. I'm back, though, and the full act will be published within a few more days, a month tops.**

**One of the main problems I had was that Adam and Kyo became too powerful in the later parts of the story that were not published yet (late act 4 and act 5), so I rewrote them a few times. I do not know how long I'll need to finish the fifth act, but it will be within summer break, hopefully.**

**Anyways, on to the story.**

* * *

{You _know_ you will get hungry enough eventually, right?}

He just huffed and turned away.

I was half impressed and half annoyed that the little fox managed to develop a sweet tooth – after a WEEK.

Downstairs, Adam was finishing his preparations for school, and I was _trying_ to get Kitsune to drink the juice of an oran berry.

I was impressed that he was able to walk around on his own already, I took much longer. I am not sure what caused that though, but if I had to guess, it was the difference in species and the resources I had access to.

The house fell silent, and I waited and waited.

Eventually, the little fox sniffed at the berry (I cut it in half) and took a small slip from the juice.

Then, he turned away again.

I groaned. That would be a looong day, and not just on this side of my life.

* * *

"…and a folder in any color to store the class tests in. Now, that's it, you can go in your break."

A minute later, I was sitting at a table, my head lying on said table.

"Bad day?"

"It's always like this," I responded, completely spent.

"Well, I'm sure that's not only because of school, is it?"

I shook my head.

"I'm still trying and failing at making the mega evolution and the transformation of Kyo more bearable, but no matter what I try, I'm still exhausted after turning back. Luckily, it's not as bad as if there would be an actual fight following. Then there's Kitsune."

"The vulpix, right?"

I nodded, then took my water bottle and drank it half in one go.

"Better. Anyways, yes. He's also picky about what he's eating…"

Lino blinked in surprise.

"How old is he? Just a week, right?"

"You can imagine my surprise."

"Let him run around."

"I'm already doing that. While you can't call it running, at least he eats when he gets hungry from that."

"Maybe you can show him around?"

"Well, after a week he's already grown stronger. So, he should be able to take a day outside. I'll ask the professor though before I do that. Why the suggestion?"

"There will be a pokémon day at our school in a few weeks, maybe two or three. Everyone who owns a pokémon they can keep under control is invited to come."

I shrugged.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, though. He is already not listening to me, even though I can tell he sees her as his mother."

Lino winced.

"Yeah… that could be a problem. Anyways, do you think he'll understand why it's important to listen to his elders?"

"He will, probably when I tell him not to sleep in front of the door and he gets knocked over by it when dad walks in."

"Are you not worried about injuries?"

"Nah. Pokémon can take being thrown around a bit."

"If you say so. Please be careful."

I nodded.

After that, I looked down on my clock and noticed that it was already time for our next class. In this case, geography.

Which was quite interesting, all things considered. After all, it told me where I'd find which weather – and that told me where I would meet which types of pokémon and find which sort of berries.

However, our geography teacher was one of the sorts who gave us a few worksheets and then left us to ourselves – worked sometimes, surprisingly enough – as such I could look over them later and concentrate on Kyoyhoa and Kitsune again.

* * *

{You see? Wasn't that bad, now was it?}

He grumbled but nodded. Then, he looked around and noticed the bed, moving in its direction.

I followed him and helped him up, since he could not jump that high as of now.

After that, he laid down, and I smiled, pulling him to my side while doing the same. However, while he was tired from playing around and growing, I was it because I had to watch him the whole time and remember what our teachers were telling us in class.

When my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light.

* * *

A few days later, I was reading an online article over vulpix, and to my annoyance, I found out that they usually were accepting whatever they were given to eat, as long it was edible, of course.

I looked over Kitsune, who was lying on my bed, sleeping. It has gotten a bit better, and he seemed to like the other berries as well, but he still made it very clear that he wanted more of the cheri berries.

Though, I knew well enough how bad of an idea it was to only eat one berry. They would boost you or sustain you for a short while, depending on what your goal is at the time, but you should not do that for too long.

Interestingly enough, he seemed to understand me really fast, but I couldn't tell the reason for that. There was no information online describing how fast pokémon understood each other or humans, and what little I found clearly indicated that it did differ from pokémon to pokémon, and of course, the species was important as well.

{Kyo?}

{Come in,} I said, having recognized Imai's voice. He started to visit me more often after I showed myself to be comfortable around him.

He entered the room and laid down next to me.

{What are you reading?}

I pointed at the screen.

{I'm looking up a detailed entry over vulpix. Since I wasn't sure what was actually good for them, I started searching for things I might have overlooked or done wrong. Interestingly enough, it seems as if the sweet tooth Kitsune developed was something caused by me feeding him the berries, but not entirely. Usually, pokémon aren't picky about what they eat, but since I gave him enough food to be able to _be_ picky, he eventually became this way. Currently, I'm circling through all the berries I can find, hopefully snapping him out of that.}

{Did you try the berry from the park?}

I nodded.

{I brought him one at the day school started. The juice seems to be what has the effect, as when I tried the berry after taking all the juice out of it, it tasted kind of bland, if that makes any sense?}

{Yeah, berries can become bland.}

We sat there in silence, and after a while, I looked back up.

{Do you want to spend some time with my other half?}

{Why would I?}

I grinned.

{Don't you want to become stronger?}


	19. Act 4 Chapter B

**Edit(ed) by: Andrizzi**

* * *

"Ah, there you are."

{So, why did you want me to get here?}

"I already told you, did I not?"

{You tell me many things. Do you mean them, though?}

"In most cases. Now, I assume you know protect?"

He nodded.

"How _good_ do you think it is?"

{I can block almost anything with it.}

We currently were in an arena, set up specifically for fights with pokémon.

That's meant as 'fights _between_ pokémon', but I wouldn't be me if I wouldn't use that for my own goals.

"Show me."

He brought up the shield, and the familiar pattern of hexagons appeared.

I just raised my hand, fitting it between two of the plates, then grabbed one of the plates and broke it off, doing that in quick succession with others nearby.

The shield buckled, but held, but only until I brought down my fist on the exposed part.

Then it splintered, and Imai took a step back out of surprise.

"Two things. You did two things wrong," I said, looking at him.

"One: Your surprise caused you to move. _Don't do that._ It can give an opponent the edge they need to beat you in battle. Secondly: Your shield was as they usually are. They can be broken apart by precision attacks, and you may have noticed that your thundershock has hit me even though I used protect. The attack flowed around it, as it is what electricity does."

{Well, I can simply concentrate on myself having a good stance, but how do you expect me to protect my shield? It's made to protect me, after all.}

"Rotate it."

{What?}

* * *

{Jester? Why are you here? I thought you don't watch those battles?}

[This one is different,] the Alakazam replied in psychic speech, responding to the question of the machamp.

{How so? I only see a human telling a manectric what to do.}

[Watch and learn.]

The manectric brought up a protect, and then the human shot forward, his right hand glowing pink.

As soon as the attack connected, the shield cracked, but then shifted. Behind the manectric, a piece of rubble started to levitate, then knocked him in the head, causing to lose concentration, which the human used to break open the shield.

Half a second later, he was at the manectric's throat, a glow surrounding his hand, which was placed on said throat.

Taking a step back, it was visible that the manectric was frustrated.

"You're dead."

{I know! How the hell did you get that good?!}

"Because unlike last time, I know what I'm doing now," the human responded, taking his place on one end of the battlefield.

They stood still for a moment on their respective sides, then an enormous amount of electricity arched forwards, aimed for the human.

However, a thin, purple line appeared above him, touching the ground and discharging the attack into nothing.

The manectric shot forwards in a blur, but before it could hit the human, said human had stepped out of the way, delivering a punch to the manectric's side.

Said manectric now opened his jaw, a torrent of flames flowing out. When they vanished, the human stood there, undamaged.

{H-how?!}

"I also did not use all my tricks when we met the last time, Imai."

{Wait,} the machamp said, turning to the alakazam.

{That's the second-strongest electric pokémon in the city! Are you telling me he's beaten by a _human_?!}

[I have to admit, while it is certainly unexpected, it is not surprising to me. I know how adaptive humans are. You may not have noticed, but to protect himself from the last attack, he used what little power he had not to counter or protect himself, but to divide the flames around him.]

"You see, I did split the flames this time. I can affect them, I just created a wind with air behind me."

{And why does every psychic pokémon tells me that's near impossible?} the manectric responded, a bow arched.

"I have near no power. That power is traded for control. Now, you should have watched your surroundings more closely," the human said, around twenty small pink points lighting up around the manectric and blasting him.

{When did you place those?!} he asked, visibly damaged, exhausted, and unable to continue to fight.

"During our last battle. You have to remember things that affect the battlefield. When you place spikes on the field, thanks to her ability Kyo won't run into them. When there is an electric field, I will use everything in my power to exclusively lessen the damage of electro attacks. Always remember the battlefield," the human said, pulling out a potion and a berry.

The machamp stared in shock at the scene before him.

{What just happened?} it asked, looking at the alakazam.

[Well, that was 'future sight', an attack whose effect can be stored and set free later. It takes time to use though, so it was the perfect idea to set them up while attacking the shield. A defending pokémon won't attack you.]

{I don't mean that, and you know it! _How_ can a _human_ beat such a strong pokémon?!}

"Because he uses special attacks," he heard the voice of the human behind him, causing him to jump.

[What do you mean?]

"I would definitively lose against you," he said, pointing at the machamp.

{Why?}

"You are a close-combat fighter. One good hit and I'm out of the fight, especially since my bones can be broken far more easily than those of a pokémon. He, however, can only tackle, bite, and scratch me, everything else he does is not a _direct_ attack on my body. You have to know your opponent."

{I see…} he responded, but before the human left, he decided to say one more thing.

"That is _IF_ you can land a hit. My powers are psychic and as such highly effective against you. Fight a psycho, dodge everything until you can land a hit. If you fight a fairy, attack as soon as possible, as they like to use attacks that take long to charge but hit _everything_ around them."

After the human left, he turned to the alakazam.

{Do you think we should go after him?}

His partner shook his head.

[No, and for two reasons. One, he only gave us advice, and beating a pokémon is no reason for suspicion. Two, I was able to sense a psychic connection within him, and I'd rather not have whatever being he's connected to come after me, as it would be as strong, if not stronger than him.]

{Still, it's scary that a human can beat such a strong pokémon.}

[And it's relieving to know he's one of only three I know of seven billion humans. A few strong humans are not a problem, many weak would be.]

* * *

{I'm beat.}

"What did you expect? I said it would make you stronger, did you thought I'd just let you run laps?"

{I didn't expect you to go toe-to-toe with me while being twice as strong as you were last time!}

"Always plan for the worst, then you can only have a better outcome. You have to _expect_ your opponents to be stronger than you are, and you have to plan around that."

{How did you do it?}

I thought a moment about it, taking a sip from the orange juice I ordered in a nearby café. Products made from normal fruit are a nice change of pace from all the berries. Looking at the sky, I turned back to him.

"I refined what little power I had, looked how I could make the most effective attacks. That's why I didn't rush in but waited until I could hit that critical point, remember? I also train each day, not for long, but enough to keep my strength up."

{I also train each day, and I can't beat you!}

"You still think in the wrong way. Don't think about how you can beat me. Think about how you can _fight_ me. Don't plan for that – plan to react to my powers. You could have dodged most of the future sight attack, you know? You could have used quick attack to get out of there."

Upon hearing that, he just hit his head on the table, next to the figy berry he had not eaten yet.

{Imai? That you?}

Looking at the voice, I spotted a sceptile, having just walked in with a female teenager in trainer clothes.

I brought up my tablet and looked it up, and surely enough, this concrete jungle actually had a trainer guild and more than thirty pokémon centers.

"Huh. The more you know," I mumbled, putting the tablet away again and listening in on the conversation.

{…sorry to hear that. Where do you live, anyway?}

"I'm sorry, we didn't interrupt anything, did we?"

{…after the egg…}

I looked up and shook my head.

"No, not really. We were just relaxing after training."

"Yeah, I don't understand why he just rushed over here, he's usually more well-behaved."

I thought a second over it.

"Does he have a mate?"

She looked surprised but nodded.

"How do you know?"

I nodded to Imai.

"One of my pokémon has a special ability she can use on eggs, and asked Imai here to look if there's anyone in need of help."

"I feel like I should know that name."

"He's one of Okubo's pokémon."

She looked at the manectric, understanding in her eyes, then confusion.

"What did you two do to make him that winded?"

"We trained his shield attack. Imai, you done?"

He nodded.

"Then mind showing the new shield?"

Said new shield popped in existence, rotating at a moderate speed around the centerpiece.

"Why does it turn?"

"It's way harder to break that way and can damage those who try. The plates of the shield there can be destroyed, but one needs a good grip on them to do so, which is way easier with a static shield."

"Still, training new attacks should not make him that exhausted."

"He fought a psychic and lost."

"How?"

"In an arena?"

"No, how did he lose?"

"The psychic pulled a massive future sight attack. You know the attack?"

She shook her head.

"It stores psychic energy in the surroundings, free to use later for the one placing them there. During the fight, there were placed many at the same point, and when he was there again – boom."

"I see. Well, I'll be going again, we just passed by."

{East wailord str. 31, 2nd floor from 8 to 10 o'clock; either tomorrow or next Tuesday.}

I nodded nearly unnoticeable, then turned back to the trainer.

"Well, it was nice chatting with you," I said, placing down the empty cup. While I wasn't looking, Imai also had eaten the berry.

After she left, I pulled out the tablet again and searched for the street, then groaned.

{What is it?}

"No matter the what or where, the _how_ is a good question. She's living in the eastern district, and pokémon can't move around without trainers or their owners there. Too bad I – wait."

{What do you plan?} Imai asked, recognizing the look in my eyes just way too well.

* * *

"{So, how do I look?}"

"Human," dad deadpanned. The horn and tail were gone, everything else was like the last time.

"Where do you want to go?" 'Adam' asked to keep up appearances.

"{Someone asked for my help, and since Kitsune is big enough, I'll take him with me. Fujita has to stay here though.}"

{AGAIN?!}

"{I told you why, did I not?}"

"What sort of help?"

"Kyoyhoa can give pokémon eggs that stopped developing a 'push' of sorts. They would never hatch otherwise."

"A noble goal. You won't go with her though – you still have school attend to."

Internally, I grinned.

That was _exactly _the reason I was going at this time. Since everyone was either at work or school, there would be way fewer problems.

"Fujita?"

{Yeah?}

"You know that you _can_ come with me to school, right?"

{Really?!} she asked, bouncing and grabbing a berry for energy.

{'M ready!}

Chuckling, I picked up Kitsune (as Kyo) and my bag (as Adam), then left the house.


	20. Act 4 Chapter C

**Edit(ed) by: Andrizzi**

* * *

"Haven't seen you in a long time," Lino commented while petting Fujita.

I was currently writing down the berries that we would need to buy the next time we would be at the market. We were running low on them, and I underestimated Kitsune's hunger.

"Hey, Adam?"

I looked up.

"What is it?"

"I'll come Sunday and take Hoseki with me. My father wanted to show me and him a new arena that was built near our house."

"Can I come with you? I need nearly thirty minutes to reach the nearest one I know of."

He shrugged.

"Sure, why not. But as I know my dad, he'd like you to bring your pokémon with you, so that he can see a fight. While he was never a pokémon trainer, he still enjoys the fights. I bet he was there when you fought Okubo, too."

I raised a bow.

"Did you tell him you visited the arena that day?"

He shook his head.

"He would have wanted to follow us and would have probably noticed that you weren't there on the visitor ranks."

Eventually, the bell rang, and we got to the classes, Fujita opting to stay on my shoulder. Since she was allowed in school and class as long as she wouldn't interrupt class, she was there and listened, as it seemed interesting for her as well.

Currently, we were in biology and talking about the difference between pokémon and humans. The main difference, of course, was the ability to create attacks and being more resilient against physical damage.

"Now, can someone tell me an example of a being standing between the border of pokémon and animal?"

"An ursaring, maybe?"

"Good guess. There are not many pokémon that have not that much energy at their disposal. Even little pokémon like your eevee there have enough energy to enhance their bodies or manipulate their opponents. Ursarings, however, rely heavily on strength – as normal bears do as well. Most of their natural attacks are scratch and bite moves as well."

{They still are strong, right?}

I absently nodded, remembering how I left them always alone while traveling in the woods. Since they were territorial and strong, I saw no reason to anger them.

"Now, there is also an interesting difference in how they get injured and heal. Can anyone tell me what it is?"

* * *

Standing before the house, I looked up.

I felt around, and I could sense an egg and a female pokémon in one of the rooms. Grabbing Kitsune in my power, I teleported us both up there. Since I was in a completely human form, it was far harder than it usually was, but I also should be unable to learn teleport anyways (as far I know), so it's not that surprising.

In front of me was an ampharos, surprisingly enough.

To her credit, when I popped into existence in her room, she only blinked once.

{Who are you?}

"{I'm Kyoyhoa. Imai told me you have a problem?}"

She nodded, looking down.

{Our child simply won't hatch.}

I thought about it for a moment, then touched the egg carefully.

"{An ampharos… still alive. Same as with Kitsune's egg…}" I said, looking through the energies.

Kitsune perked up when hearing her name, looking down on the egg before him.

I reached in me and split off a small, small amount of my psychic energy, giving it into the egg.

A glow rushed along my arm, entering the egg, then it dispersed.

"{I assume you want to know what I just did?}"

She nodded, sitting down, so I did the same.

"{Well, there is a specific condition that eggs simply don't hatch when the pokémon inside of it didn't develop its brain properly. There is a 1/2000 chance that this happens, and together with the other problems that can appear with eggs – like suffocation or similar things – there is an around one in 550 chance an egg will never hatch without outside influence. That number is probably that high because of the powers we have, and the drawback of them.}"

And that was true, as well. Humans and animals had a way, _way_ smaller chance of something even remotely similar happening to them.

"{Usually, when the brain develops, some neurons inside of it connect randomly and interact with each other. That starts the development of the brain. However, when that doesn't happen, the egg can develop further, but without the brain working properly, the child won't hatch. What I do is to give that push, but I can only help around one of four cases, as there's only a rough one in four chance that is the reason when an egg isn't hatching.}"

{Uhhhhh…}

I think I broke her.

"{Put things short: Some eggs don't start developing properly, and this can help about a fourth of them, as I just did.}"

I looked at her, realizing how she was staring at me.

{Thank you, thank you!} she cried out, hugging me with her short arms.

Slightly embarrassed, I put my arms around her as well.

"Now, since we are done with our material for today, are there any questions?"

I raised my hand.

"Yes, Adam?"

"Well, I remember that pokémon eggs sometimes don't hatch, and that can be caused by a few things, but I'm not sure which."

"Well…" he said, thinking about a moment.

"For one, sometimes they just aren't alive. Suffocated, not incubated, that sort of thing. Then they sometimes don't develop properly, when they have too little of their internal energy or something else. There are a few other, _really_ rare cases, but that's about it. By the way, most of the alive eggs that don't hatch have an energetic problem in their development, as such, they can be saved by a push of psychic energy."

"Thank you," I responded, looking at Fujita who was looking up at me.

{Does that mean you can do that with almost all eggs?}

"As long they are alive, probably," I whispered back.

{Well, you may not have noticed it, but at that ranch, your brother was at there was one egg that simply wasn't hatching. Could you take your time and look at it?} she asked unusually serious, her ears slightly dropping.

"If I find the time," I said, petting her.

* * *

{…to…?} Kitsune asked, somehow managing to speak way earlier than I did. Why is he developing that fast?

"{The stadium,}" I responded, having turned after hearing from Fujita that there was an affected egg at the ranch. Imai had a lot of connections, and I hoped he would know a big pokémon capable of flight, a swellow or pidgeot maybe.

"{Excuse me, do you know where Okubo's manectric is?}" I asked the lady who was selling tickets.

"He should be in the pokécenter of the stadium," she responded, pointing to the side. Walking there, I found him lying there, getting checked on by a nurse.

{Kyoyhoa?} he asked upon recognizing me.

"{Hey, Imai. I wanted to ask if you know any pokémon that could bring me to the ranch in the woods nearby.}"

{I know a few. I'll ask them. Why?}

"{Egg,}" I responded, and his face fell.

{That's, what, two in three days? I don't like that I'm hearing about so many unhatched eggs.}

I shrugged.

"{Well, there should maybe five to ten thousand appear. Per year. This is a big world, and we are bound to find a few of them.}"

{_That_ many?}

"{That was the best-case scenario,}" I deadpanned, before picking up Kitsune again.

"{Well, I'll be going. If you find someone, please tell them to meet me Saturday at my house, as Sunday I'll be checking out a new arena.}"

{Okay, see you around.}

Before I left though, I walked over to him and focused a small amount of my energy into him, then bent down to him, coming really close to his face. I took a look in his eyes, then commented:

"{There, you should feel better now,}" – and pulled away.

{You tease!}

Chuckling, I left and walked home.

* * *

"Okay, Imai says he will see if he can get me to the farm. With luck, Kyo can look at it this Saturday."

{Thanks, Adam!}

I chuckled and petted the small pokémon.

"Never change…"

{But I'm the pokémon with the most evolutions!}

Whoops.

"I meant you should always stay true to yourself."

{Oh, okay! I just remembered, by the way – Lino told you to visit the new arena with him, right?}

"You want to come?"

She nodded.

{I want to see if I can use some of your tactics!}

I shrugged.

"You know what? After we visited the arena, I'll talk with you about some of the tactics I like to use. Sounds good?"

She nodded, and I concentrated on Kyoyhoa again. After all, we were currently talking about the woods, and about _them,_ I knew more than enough.

* * *

"{Well, would you look at that,}" I commented, grinning at the scene before me.

After having finished what I was doing in the eastern district, I decided to go to the park Imai showed me and picked up another of the berries that tasted so wonderful.

For some weird reason, I had the taste of meat in my mouth, but I dismissed it for the time being. Unluckily though, I was proven wrong when I actually _felt_ myself eating the berry, although just for a second.

While I usually would dismiss such an event as a trick played on my senses, I was quite unsure if I should. After all, I already had two bodies, but I was _not_ Kitsune.

[Mom?]

I blinked. That was the last straw – he did not say that in physical speech, but in psychic. But there was no power used, indicating that the connection was already here.

[Yes?] I hesitantly replied, petting him on my lap.

[More!]

I shook my head.

[No, you can't take more.]

[Why?]

I turned a bit, and she followed my gaze, seeing the other pokémon in the park.

[They want them, too.]

[Oh.]

After that short conversation, I appeared unfazed, but internally, I was freaking out. After all – one just doesn't develop a hive mind without reason.

I decided to visit the alakazam I saw at the arena a few days earlier and ask it about it. As I saw it, it was working there, in turn, meaning, I could find it there.

Maybe Sunday, after I visited the arena Lino wanted to show me. Arenas were open almost all the time, and pokémon don't really care about the day of the week.


	21. Act 4 Chapter D

**Edit(ed) by: Andrizzi**

* * *

"What? You are saying you're connected to him, as well?"

I nodded.

"I checked a few times. He is 'him', but still a part of me. This is confusing."

"Emergence?"

"What?"

"You don't know what it is? It's when a system becomes more than the sum of its parts. For example, how many tiny brain cells can produce intelligence."

"Then yes. You see, I can feel at times what he does, and I can hear him when he talks to me in his mind. There is no telepathy or psychic power involved, though. If that is true, though, I should be able to feel what he feels whenever I choose," I responded, testing this by concentrating on him.

To my surprise, it worked, and I could feel the fluffy carpet against 'my' fur. Weird.

"Maybe it's because I'm using part of my psychic energy to do this?"

Lino just shrugged.

"Could be. Though that also means were you to continue this, you would have ears and eyes everywhere, and that quite literally."

"Yeah," I agreed, then realized something.

"Wait. This isn't emergence. This system gains more parts, and the newer parts stay part of the old and are made from the old. Is there a name for that?"

"No idea, probably not. Which of your pokémon will you bring when you come to the arena, anyways?"

"All of them. I will fight with Kyo and Fujita and Skylar with each other, they are about the same strength."

Since Fujita wasn't here at the moment, she did not speak up. I wanted her to stay with Kyoyhoa this day, as the two were training today together with the others.

* * *

{What are you _doing_?} Skylar asked me, seeing me pushing around a berry with my psychic powers.

{I'm trying to make them smaller without bursting them, but it seems like it isn't working. I found out that when I press them out though, their juice has nearly the same effect as the whole berry, for example, the healing effect of the sitrus berry.}

The riolu blinked, then shook her head.

{Of what use would that be?}

{To use them in battle.}

Her hand came crashing down on an ice block Hoseki conjured up earlier, then she ducked, evading Fujita.

I noticed that Kitsune was watching us when she spoke up.

[Fight?]

I groaned.

{Please _talk_. Only I can hear you like that.}

{…so?}

I nodded.

[Ok.]

I facepalmed, hard.

* * *

By now, I was used to visiting Imai regularly. After school ended, I made my way over to the electric gym, finding him on his way to the park.

"Hey, Imai."

{Adam. Do you need me for something?}

"Not really, but how do you get a pokémon that can communicate psychically to use its voice?"

He blinked in surprise.

{What warrants this question is something I can guess. But how did he even get such an ability? I thought vulpix is exclusively fire-type.}

"Kyo's a dark-type and can still learn many psycho-moves, so that argument doesn't really hold any weight."

{True. I'd try giving him something to look for when he does as you ask.}

Idea…

* * *

{I'm beat.}

{That's the idea behind that,} I commented, bringing a few bowls filled with water over.

{Kyo?}

I turned to the amaura.

{What is it?}

{Lino said you'd fight me, is that true?}

{Depends,} I said, setting aside the bowl I already drank half out.

{He wants to take you to a new arena nearby and asked me to come. If you want to fight me is up to you,} I explained, picking up the berries from a nearby shelf and eating a few of them.

[Berry!]

{Which one do you want?}

[Red!]

{How about this: I'll give it to you when Hoseki can tell me which one you mean, okay?}

[Ok! Hoseki?]

Of course, he didn't hear him.

[Hoseki!]

Still, nothing.

[Hoseki! Blue dino!]

{[Hoseki!]}

Now, he turned to him and looked at him, wondering what he could want.

{Yes, little one?}

{Red berry!}

He turned to me.

{I take it he wants a cheri berry.}

I nodded, that was the only red berry I had given him yet.

As such, I pulled over the berries and gave him one of them, having split it in half beforehand so he could drink the juice in it.

{Good idea.}

{Thanks. By the way, will you two come with me to the next gym? It's against a ghost trainer,} I said, turning to Skylar and Fujita.

{Wouldn't we be useless there? She could at least do some damage,} Skylar said, gesturing to Fujita.

I smirked.

{And what if I told you one can attack ghost pokémon with fight attacks?}

Her eyes grew wide.

{Really? How?}

{Pokémon have a unique energy in them. It is what we use for our attacks, or how you can speed up when you use quick attack. That energy is the same in all pokémon, and as such, when you focus on this energy instead of the ghost pokémon, you can harm them.}

Then, I got serious.

{However! That does also mean we can't say if you managed to do that until we fight against the gym leader! So, you should concentrate on other attacks as well, those that will always affect ghosts.}

{Which attacks would that be?}

{Let me look,} I responded, going in my room and picking up the tablet.

After a few minutes, I put it down.

{Okay, the attacks you can learn easily are of the types normal and fighting, so they are not really useful in our case. However, you can, for example, learn 'iron tail' or 'dark claw' – and since the latter one _is_ of the type ghost, while it's hard to learn, it is strong attack.}

{I'll do my best to learn it, then!}

Scrolling down to the instructions, I started to read.

{Learning dark claw – fight- and normal-type pokémon. If you want to learn dark claw, the first thing you have to do is to let go of your ideas on how you fight with physical attacks. Yes, you attack directly while using dark claw, but only to deliver the _actual_ attack. You use your energy when you attack, and that energy can be used to create many attacks, but in this special case, you want to change it while attacking, keeping it in a so-to-speech 'boiling' state. To archive this, you have to do the following…}


	22. Act 4 Chapter E

**Edit(ed) by: Andrizzi**

* * *

"ADAM!"

Getting shocked out of my stupor, I looked up, realizing that Lino was standing in front of me.

"Are you okay? You are staring into nothing," he asked, sitting back down on his chair.

Looking around, I realized we were in the cafeteria, after math if I'm reading the clock correctly.

"Sorry, I was kind of distracted."

Recreating the mental separation between my two bodies as I did when I fought myself back at the ranch, I found I could concentrate better on Lino. I knew I was explaining things to Skylar as Kyo, but it was now not something at the forefront of 'my' mind.

I was still suspicious of my ability to do so and would prefer multitasking everything, but that was not something I could do yet.

"I noticed. I wanted to give you this," he said, handing me a letter.

Opening it, I found it to be an invitation from his father to meet him at their house this afternoon to talk about things.

He also asked me to bring Kyoyhoa with me, as he wanted to know if the stones worked. Only after reading this, I realized I haven't tried what would count as a 'normal' mega evolution yet.

Whoops.

* * *

The mega evolution has… side effects.

When I used it, a small amount is flowing back into 'Adam', and 'I' had to inhibit that flow of power to prevent the white lines on my hand turning 'my' entire arm into a white and black one.

I'm sure you all have seen an absol in mega form before? Then I'll put this short(-ish).

The wings seem to be fake. I can move them around, and they are surprisingly dense, though. When 'Adam' used a psycho-cut on them, they did not part, and I assumed they could tank some damage on it, but I wouldn't want to bet on that.

My horn becomes stronger, as well. I cannot use stronger attacks with it, but faster, as the new form increases the power output.

After I checked the differences to my default form, I felt around in the wings, and to my surprise, there was more than just fur. There was also a small amount of psychic energy running through them, keeping them in their shape and moving them around.

Remembering how most of my energy stayed in my body while transforming, I tried to turn into a humanoid pokémon again. It worked, but the wings on my back became way larger than they were before in relation to my body, their tips extending below my waist.

They also were brimming with psychical energy, and when I pressed my fur-covered hand against them, I could feel said hand. Going through the wings, I could actually 'feel' muscles, made entirely of psionic energy.

However, that energy was, as I said before, only part of my body. When I tried to fire a psycho-cut from my hand, it had once again way less strength, as 'Adams' attacks do.

As before, a human or humanoid form allowed me way higher control, but at the drawback of having significantly less power at my disposal. The increased power output of my transformed horn was helpful, but it only got me back to around a third of my original power, while I had in my fully human forms access to a bit less than a tenth of my power.

But that meant my attacks were smaller, and it hurt way more to get hit by a sharp, thin edge than a broad, heavy one. All in all, my attacks had the same _effect_ on enemies in both forms.

"{Skylar?}" I asked, having sensed her nearby. I raised an eyebrow. It seemed that with increased control came an increased sixth sense, for whatever reason.

{Are you – what did you do now?} she asked after seeing me.

"{Mega evolution.}"

"Has interesting effects on her humanoid form, though."

{Did you just get the flying type? I know a few pokémon change type when mega evolving, but this is ridiculous!}

I moved the wings around a bit.

"{Don't be ridiculous, there's no way I'm able to fly with these,}" I responded, throwing them down – and launching myself up in the air.

When I came crashing down back on the ground, Skylar was just looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

"{Okay, fine, I _am_ able to fly with those. Question is why, they are just fur and psychic energy.}"

Taking one of the wings in her paw, Skylar thought about it for a moment.

{They feel as if there is some form of membrane below the fur, like a glurak's wings.}

"{Yeah, but what would that change?}"

{That energy seems to force it in the form of wings, not allowing it to move around, essentially making the wings airtight. And they are relatively big, so I'm not surprised by what happened.}

"{How do I stay in the air, then?}" I asked, flapping them once, then again. However, the second time I tried flapped them, it felt as if they weren't moving, and I crashed down, back in my anthromorph form with no wings and fur all over my body.

When I later tried to use the mega evolution again, I found that I could stay _way_ longer in it when not using the wings. While they stored much more energy than my body, it seemed it was just stored until I used the wings, and they were just fur while I was fully turned in a pokémon.

Annoyed, I felt around for the energy, and I pushed it out again, trying to bring the wings back. Interestingly enough, a violet glow started to surround my back, but it dissipated, as I found I could not force enough energy in them to initiate the mega evolution.

That I was able to do this at all though meant there were some very interesting things about the mega evolution. Since I could probably transform myself without using the actual mega stones, that meant the mega stones were only a catalysator, not a requirement.

They were one heck of a catalysator, though.

Similar to how I'm able to turn myself as Adam in an Absol. Originally, I needed the energy the stones drew in from their surroundings to do so, but now I could do it without them.

The mega evolution was something completely different, though. I felt how energy was drawn into me, and then releases when I reverted. I just paid no mind to that.

Like before with the use of mega stones, I was also incredibly tired again. However, transforming as both Kyoyhoa and Adam has become a bit more easily lately. Maybe because there is some sort of 'muscle memory' in the energies?

At least I knew I was able to use the mega evolution, so there's that.

Recalled by 'myself' back into the pokéball for the first time in forever since the mega evolution once again exhausted me, 'Adam' started to make his way to Lino's house.

* * *

"Adam!"

"Hey, Lino," I said, having entered their house.

It was early evening, and I took a quick look at the sun before turning my attention back to him.

"If you're searching for me, I'll be at your place, training with Hoseki."

I groaned. We needed to find a better solution for that, and while our homes were close together, it still was annoying.

After he left, I followed his father in their living room which was filled with many instruments and rocks.

Interesting choice of interior decoration at least.

"So, I wanted to know how good you could use the mega evolution, mind telling me?"

I sat down, then pulled out the two stones.

"Well, did you hear the news about the incident near the café a few days ago?"

He nodded.

"A pokémon seemed to be so angry about being attacked that she turned one of them in a pokémon, and there's a huge amount of speculation why or how."

Opening my hand, I showed him the key stone Lino gave me from him.

"Well, she used this key stone. I can tell you that because it was my absol that got in that situation."

"Really?"

I shrugged.

"After hearing that, I was quite surprised, but not in a bad way. Anyways, she told me she used a key stone to do so, as they are catalysts for transformations. But back to your question, yes, the mega evolution is working flawlessly."

"I assume you have a strong bond with your pokémon, then?"

Oh, you have no idea.

"Yeah, that's true. And while we sometimes fight with each other, it's never serious."

"You fight with your pokémon?"

I nodded.

"It makes for a good test on reflexes and strength."

Taking something from a shelf, he held out another, blue mega stone to me.

"What is that?"

"Well, I remember Lino telling me that you somehow got acquainted with Okubo's manectric."

"Yeeess…?"

"This is, as far I know, a mega stone for manectric. I want you to see if that's true."

"Well, one moment, please," I said, releasing Kyoyhoa.

After she saw the mega stone, she lifted it, then placed it back down and said Imai's name. I nodded, then recalled her.

"It is," I said, handing him the stone back.

"What did you just do?"

"Well, Kyoyhoa has met Imai often enough to know his signature. While being of the dark type, she has amazing psychic powers. Point being, the stone corresponded with the signature of Okubo's manectric, which was what she said in abridged form."

"I think I understand. Did you know that there are mega stones for nearly a fifth of pokémon?"

I shrugged.

"No, I expected there to be more. Mega stones are probably formed near populations of the pokémon they are for, right?"

He nodded.

"Well, as far as _I_ see it, they can be created for each and every pokémon, given enough time."

I handed him the tablet, showing the article 'Seto' wrote earlier.

* * *

_'Creation of mega stones._

_Mega stones enable pokémon and trainers that have bonded to reach new heights in battle. They change the pokémon by drawing in energy from their surroundings and changing the pokémon to make them stronger. After the battle, the mega evolution, as it is called, reverses._

_But how are those stones created?_

_Dr. Geoidal discovered that mega stones are likely to be found in specific rocks near pokémon populations. Nothing was thought about it, but there is a high chance that the energy of the pokémon causes the stones to form in the first place._

_Unluckily, I have no access to the specific mineral that forms a mega stone, but I am sure I could synthesize a mega stone, given enough time._

_However, I will not reveal the process to do so, similar to the transformation of humans into pokémon I talked about in my last article. Since this has a _high_ chance of being dangerous and used to boost rich and criminal people, I will first test my theory before revealing anything else._

_If I am right though, it means that the mega evolution is accessible for every pokémon. And it fits with what we know about the mega evolution as well. Why do some pokémon have no mega evolution – and some even two?_

_When I manage to create a mega stone for a pokémon we do not know of yet to be able to mega evolve, I will continue this. Until then, I'm out._

_-Seto.'_

* * *

"I did not know I was that famous."

"You are just one of the few people who are working on mega evolution, you are bound to be mentioned when they are only three or four people on the continent researching this."

"True. But this Seto, do you know where I can meet him personally? I'd like to talk with him about his theories."

"Well, Seto has a mailbox in this city," I said, scrolling down on the webpage until the address of said mailbox was visible, alongside an e-mail address and profile.

"Convenient. Do you think he'd appreciate me sending him the mineral mega stones tend to form in?"

I shrugged.

"Why are you asking _me_ that? Send him mail or e-mail and ask him."

"True. Now, you maybe know I'm an enthusiast of pokémon fights, right?"

I nodded.

"Lino told me as such."

"Then I'd like you to ask how you can have _any_ chance of fighting a pokémon."

"Rules. No powers, no disabling blows, and of course an opponent made from flesh and bones. No way I'm fighting an onyx."

"Well, on that I can agree. Now, you are looking after the amaura that wanted my son as his trainer, right?"

"Yes? Your point being?" I asked, taking a sip of the tea he made earlier.

"You know both well. Are they fit for each other? I have seen it often enough that pokémon and trainer seem to be a fit, but then part after just a few weeks."

I shrugged.

"They'll be fine. Lino visits often to play and train with him although not being allowed to fight with him yet," I responded, placing the cup down.

"That's good; thank you," he said, seemingly having gotten to the reason he asked me to come over today.

After that, I noticed something interesting. He was a geologist, right?

"Could you give me a fire stone, by the way? I have a vulpix now, and I'd like to evolve it someday."

I could get such a stone by myself using the coins from the gym, but I wanted to try something. Also, I wanted to wait with buying anything with the coins, there was a high chance I'd need them later.

"Fire stones are common; I think I can give you one. They are quite easy to find," he said, pulling out one such stone from a nearby drawer, filled with evolution stones.

Pocketing it, I thanked him, then we exchanged goodbyes and I left.

* * *

It could be possible to evolve a pokémon not instantaneously, but rather slowly. If that's true, it could also help with many of the problems that come with rapid evolution.

Placing the stone on a shelf next to my books over pokémon, I remembered I could not use it right now. After all, Kitsune could barely talk and run. I'd need to wait a while longer before allowing him to evolve.

After releasing Kyoyhoa, I climbed in my bed, her lying beside me. From my perspective, it was much like I'd have a sister of mine sleeping with me, nothing lewd about it.

The fact that my dad thought it was, though, did nothing to dissuade me.

END OF ACT 4


End file.
